Amreeka (2009)  Filmmaker Cherien Dabis

I thought I was going to love this film and ended up just liking it.  The “white knight saving POC” as a plot device bothered me.  Perhaps I see it so often that my affinity for unity and helping one another gets thrown out the window when films portray POC as constantly needing to be rescued by the dominate culture.  

Otherwise, I loved Muna, the lead played by Nisreen Faour, for her honesty and vulnerability.  Also, the relationship between her and her son was wonderful to watch and didn’t seem forced.

Dabis grew up in Ohio and Amreeka was meant to reflect her childhood experience during the Gulf War and the sudden shift in how she and her family were treated.  I think using the Arab / Arab adjacent (or not so adjacent) backlash after 9/11 and the onset of the Iraq War was a great way to modernize and give a voice to that experience shared by many.  

TSA: Citizenship?

Muna: We don’t have.

TSA: You don’t have citizenship…as in you don’t have a country?

Muna: That’s right.

TSA: Where are you from? [Pause] Israel?

Muna:  No no, it’s the Palestinian territory.

TSA: Your occupation?

Muna: Yes, it is occupied for 40 years.

TSA: No, what is your occupation?