Film Review: Coming to “Amreeka”

By Sara Elghobashy

September 6, 2009

Muna Farah (Nisreen Faour) is fed up. Her husband left her for a younger, thinner woman. She lives with her mother, who constantly nags her about everything, including her weight. She commutes two hours to her banking job in East Jerusalem from her home in Bethlehem, a commute that used to take 15 minutes, while navigating checkpoints and experiencing daily harassment from young, Israeli soldiers. So when a green card she had applied for years ago unexpectedly arrives in the mail, Muna is eager to relocate from the Israeli-occupied West Bank to “Amreeka” (the Middle Eastern term of endearment for America), especially after watching her teenage son, Fadi (Melkar Muallen), face humiliation for mouthing off to an Israeli soldier.

Upon her arrival to settle in with her sister’s family, Muna faces a number of your average daily obstacles for the Arab immigrant – you know, the accidental confiscation of her savings at airport security, the inability to find a job as a banker after ten years of experience and the prejudice toward Arabs (or anyone suspected of being Arab) in a post-9/11 world and at the start of the Iraq War. Her son is also challenged, as the constant target of bigoted bullies at school.

But believe it or not, Amreeka is actually one of those feel-good films that leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy, despite the fact that it explores issues such as gender relations in a Middle Eastern household or the conflict between immigrant parents and their fully assimilated children. As it navigates the heavy subject of the immigrant experience in America and how it feels to assimilate in a country that is weary of a constantly stereotyped nationality, it never overwhelms the audience. But that said, maybe it should. Many of the film’s weighty issues are often explored lightly, and are almost always resolved neatly with predictable plot twists and sometimes awkward transitions.

Overall, the film aims to be optimistic, and also offers up laughs and a genuinely witty script along the way. Highlights include the large “SUPPORT OUR OOPS” sign that is missing some key letters outside the White Castle where Muna works or an alarming phone call from Muna’s mother, who is worried about her daughter after hearing of an earthquake in California – though Muna lives in Illinois.

Nisreen Faour gives an excellent performance as a caring mother, an optimist and all-around good person that pushes the film to triumph above all its troubles. The moments in which she has cultural misunderstandings are particularly great, especially the scene in the airport in which she is asked her occupation, but thinks the customs officer is referring to Palestine, replying, “Yes, it is occupieded for 40 years.” All in all, I would give Amreeka a B for an outstanding performance by Faour, an overall positive message and for tackling a subject that is rarely explored by our society today.