Amreeka (2009)

A drama centered on an immigrant single mother and her teenage son in small town Illinois.

Director:

Cherien Dabis

Writer:

Cherien Dabis

Stars:

Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallem, Alia Shawkat

6 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nisreen Faour	...	Muna Farah
Melkar Muallem	...	Fadi
Alia Shawkat	...	Salma Halaby
Hiam Abbass	...	Raghda Halaby
Yussuf Abu-Warda	...	Nabeel Halaby
Joseph Ziegler	...	Stan Novatski
Amer Hlehel	...	Samer
Selena Haddad	...	Lamis Halaby
Jenna Kawar	...	Rana Halaby
Suheila Muallem	...	Jamie
Brodie Sanderson	...	Matt
Andrew Sannie	...	James
Daniel Boiteau	...	Mike
Jeff Button	...	Jason
Miriam Smith	...	Bank Employee

Storyline

Muna, a single mother in Ramallah, has applied for a visa to the US. When it comes, her son Fadi, an excellent student, convinces her they should go. After an incident at customs begins their exile badly, they join Muna's sister and family in Illinois. Muna needs a job: although she has two degrees and 15 years' experience in banking, she settles for work at White Castle, telling the family her job's at a nearby bank. It's spring, 2003, and the US invades Iraq. While friends come from unlikely places, Fadi meets prejudice at school. How he'll respond to it and to American youth culture and how Muna will sort things out with her family are the rest of the story. Tragedy or hope?

---

Plot Keywords:

school | illinois | bank | white castle | bethlehem | 

---

Taglines:

Life's best adventures are journeys of the heart.

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief drug use involving teens, and some language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English Arabic

Release Date:

17 June 2009 (France)

Also Known As:

Amerrika

Filming Locations:

Ramallah, Palestine

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$61,176 (USA) (18 September 2009)

Gross:

$622,164 (USA) (15 January 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

First Generation Films, Alcina Pictures, Buffalo Gal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

There were no White Castles in Winnepeg, where it was filmed, so the White Castle company had the supplies for one trucked there. It never sold food, but people kept trying to order from it.

User Reviews

Plodding and episodic indy about Palenstine immigrants kept afloat by magnificent performance

Amreeka chronicles the trials and tribulations of the lead character and her son as they leave a dissatisfying and violent life in Palestine for a dissatisfying and violent life in the Chicago area of the US. The performances of these two leads define the movie for me. Ms. Faour, as the mother, gives depth to her character way beyond the script, and conveys the proper resilience in the face of all possible indignities that only actors of true star quality can convey. On the other extreme, the actor playing the son is whiny and completely unconvincing when supposedly acting out of anger or supposedly longing to fit in. He is simply inept. With the exception of the poor performance by the class bully, the rest of the acting both by Palestinians and Americans is fairly good, especially given the rambling and episodic script that is chock full of clichés.

Another huge impediment to enjoyment for me was the fact that the English subtitles in many scenes were nearly impossible to read. It seems to me that when letter-boxing first caught on, the subtitles on movies requiring them would appear in the letter-boxed portion of the screen making them highly visible. Then after awhile, that practice ceased altogether and I remember some highbrow critic saying that it was a practice that should be discontinued and shortly thereafter was - but I cannot recall why. In any event, some movies still manage to make the subtitles legible. This is NOT one of them.

Altogether, if you wish to see a magnificent lead actor performance by a very atypical leading lady, there are worse ways to spend 100 minutes. FOr most of us, there are also better ways.