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ajnabiehOh my god, you guys. If you haven't seen Amreeka, the film about a Palestinian mother and son who immigrate to suburban Illinois just as the US is invading Iraq in 2003, you totally should. I just screened it with my Arab Migrations seminar, and it was way cute.
Here are a random set of squeeful thoughts about it:
1) I love that all the actors appear, from their names and ability to speak Arabic as well as English, to actually be of Arab descent. The three lead adults and one of the kid characters all have to switch back and forth between English and Arabic, and do equally well in each language; the other kids have to respond to lines in Arabic as if they understand them, and nobody appears to hesitate. (Well, the littlest girl's timing is a little off, but she pulls it off.)
2) The opening cinematography of Bethlehem, where the protagonist, Mona, and her son Fadi start out, is just gorgeous. How much do I want to get on a plane right now? So much. (Frankly, suburban Illinois looks good too...but I harbor no suppressed longing to go there.)
3) The story is funny and "universal" (in that it tells a story that is accessible to folks who don't know much about Arabs/Palestine/Arab-Americans), but it still doesn't shy from talking about Middle Eastern politics and the problems of being Arab in American in 2003.
4) OMG, you guys, Nisreen Faour. She is so great. She's funny, she's got good timing and an excellent earnest "straight-woman" face, she can convey the angst and deliberation she's undergoing, and she can still pull off all the humor.
5) OMG MUNA, the character Faour plays.
It's a bit of a hokey movie, but so earnestly played that it all comes together. This is definitely a movie you could watch with no background info on Arab communities in the US, but for those who know a little, you won't get either enraged or nitpicky. It's just a sweet movie, and really uplifting. (It contains references to structural racism against Arabs, and you see them occur on screen, but in a way that touches lightly on them, and doesn't dwell on the ugliness of them--a way that lets the light shine through.)
Anyway. It's on Netflix, I think, and I rented it from my public library. Suuuuper sweet, you guys.
who wants to nom it for yultide
Here are a random set of squeeful thoughts about it:
1) I love that all the actors appear, from their names and ability to speak Arabic as well as English, to actually be of Arab descent. The three lead adults and one of the kid characters all have to switch back and forth between English and Arabic, and do equally well in each language; the other kids have to respond to lines in Arabic as if they understand them, and nobody appears to hesitate. (Well, the littlest girl's timing is a little off, but she pulls it off.)
2) The opening cinematography of Bethlehem, where the protagonist, Mona, and her son Fadi start out, is just gorgeous. How much do I want to get on a plane right now? So much. (Frankly, suburban Illinois looks good too...but I harbor no suppressed longing to go there.)
3) The story is funny and "universal" (in that it tells a story that is accessible to folks who don't know much about Arabs/Palestine/Arab-Americans), but it still doesn't shy from talking about Middle Eastern politics and the problems of being Arab in American in 2003.
4) OMG, you guys, Nisreen Faour. She is so great. She's funny, she's got good timing and an excellent earnest "straight-woman" face, she can convey the angst and deliberation she's undergoing, and she can still pull off all the humor.
5) OMG MUNA, the character Faour plays.
It's a bit of a hokey movie, but so earnestly played that it all comes together. This is definitely a movie you could watch with no background info on Arab communities in the US, but for those who know a little, you won't get either enraged or nitpicky. It's just a sweet movie, and really uplifting. (It contains references to structural racism against Arabs, and you see them occur on screen, but in a way that touches lightly on them, and doesn't dwell on the ugliness of them--a way that lets the light shine through.)
Anyway. It's on Netflix, I think, and I rented it from my public library. Suuuuper sweet, you guys.