Amreeka (2009)

A drama centered on the trials and tribulations of a proud Palestinian Christian immigrant single mother and her teenage son in small town Indiana.

Director:

Cherien Dabis

Writer:

Cherien Dabis

Stars:

Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallem, Hiam Abbass

9 wins & 18 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nisreen Faour	...	Muna Farah
Melkar Muallem	...	Fadi Farah
Hiam Abbass	...	Raghda Halaby
Alia Shawkat	...	Salma Halaby
Yussuf Abu-Warda	...	Nabeel Halaby (as Yussef Abu Warda)
Joseph Ziegler	...	Mr. Novatski
Amer Hlehel	...	Samer
Selena Haddad	...	Lamis Halaby
Jenna Kawar	...	Rana Halaby
Suheila Muallem	...	Jamileh
Brodie Sanderson	...	Matt
Andrew Sannie	...	James
Daniel Boiteau	...	Mike
Jeff Button	...	Jason (as Jeff Sutton)
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?

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Plot Keywords:

school | bank | student | white castle | single mother | 

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Taglines:

Serving up the American Dream.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Official Sites:

Former Official site for the film - site no longer active. [United States] Official distributor's page for the film. [Australia]

Country:

USA United Arab Emirates Canada Kuwait Jordan

Language:

English Arabic French

Release Date:

17 June 2009 (France)

Also Known As:

Amerrika

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$61,176, 18 September 2009, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$622,164, 17 January 2010

Company Credits

Production Co:

National Geographic Entertainment, Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ, Levantine Entertainment

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.

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Goofs

Interviews and luggage searches are performed by people with "Airport Security" patches on their uniforms. These jobs would be performed by Customs officers and Immigration officers.

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Soundtracks

Back to the Future
Written by Marc Ferrari, Josh Kessler, Jaime McPherson, Jesse Shatkin
Performed by Kamlege
Published by Angeles Crest Music (SESAC)/Red Engine Music (ASCAP)
Courtesy of MasterSource Music Catalog

User Reviews

A beautiful, personal film; not what you might expect.

I seldom comment on movies here but felt compelled to comment on this one. I say "not what you might expect" because I think a lot of people's reactions to this film are going to be heavily influenced by preconceptions about what this film is supposed to be "about." I can't blame them; if I heard that this was "a film about an Arab family's struggles after immigrating the USA after September 11th," I'd probably groan because I'd have certain expectations too. But this is not a "message" film, and if you go into it looking for messages, you're going to miss the point. Rather than political, this film is personal. You could call it simple, but it's not simplistic. Far from it; it refuses to reduce the subtlety and nuance of life to overt messages. I think that an honest, objective viewing of this movie will reveal that, the "stereotypes" and "simplifications" that some reviewers are seeing, were brought in by the reviewers themselves. This is not a perfect film, but it has a lot more depth, beauty and truth than most family dramas, and certainly more than the didactic work one might expect.