Amreeka
Amreeka is somewhat biographical for Nebraska born L Word director Cherien Dabis who uses a handful of unknown but superb actors with whom she shares a nationality to tell the story. Most notable is Nisreen Faour who plays Muna Farah, a beautiful although plus sized West Bank Palestinian single mother working hard in a professional job which allows her to send her son Fadi (Melkar Muallem) to private school. Inexplicably she’s handed the brass ring on receiving an invitation to immigrate to the USA courtesy of a long forgotten visa application. Although reticent to take advantage of the coveted opportunity she begins to examine her actually depressing situation in an occupied territory not to mention the infinitely better future that await her son were she to move. Smoothing the transition is her relative Raghda Halaby (Hiam Abbass, not quite the force here as in The Lemon Tree or The Visitor) who lives in Illinois with her physician husband and three daughters one of whom is the rebellious teen Salma played by Alia Shawkat for once personifying her Arabic roots. Muna’s timing could be better, landing just as the invasion of Iraq is underway and Muslims are treated with suspicion. Even though Muna and the Halaby’s are not Muslims they run afoul of the truly ignorant but fortunately not everyone in the mid west is so unenlightened and the kindness of strangers as well as hope help Muna to a new level of confidence and happiness. Amreeka sounds like a Middle Eastern take on America which is exactly what this film is about.