.

If you recall finding trouble adjusting to a particular environment, the emotions and reactions of the characters from Amreeka might be familiar to you. The feelings of discomfort and the need to rearrange your mental space in a new setting are perfectly captured here.

This film – the directorial debut of Cherien Dabis – takes a look at the stresses and revelations of recent immigrants, as well as the cultural ignorance of some of the people that surround them. Nisreen Faour plays the story’s central character, Muna – a Palestinian single mother who wins the green card lottery, and moves to Illinois her son, Fadi (Melkar Muallem). The film quickly shifts from the hot and dry setting in Palestine, where walls make a significant part of the landscape, to a view of supermarkets and suburban homes, familiar to all North American residents. The newcomers stay with Muna’s sister Raghda (Hiam Abbass), and her husband and daughters.

Although Muna and Fadi didn’t seem to have too many idealized daydreams about a rockin’ new life in America, they weren’t completely prepared for the struggles they come across. Muna loses all her savings, having put them in a cookie box that the border guards threw away while she wasn’t looking. This makes her impatient to find a job; she wishes to work as a banker, like she used to in Palestine. American banks are unwilling to hire her, despite all her knowledge, experience, drive, and charisma. Insensitive comments about “blowing up the place” sometimes emerge when she reveals her Arab background. Muna ends up getting a minimum-wage job at White Castle, which she attempts to hide from her family by pretending to work in a bank across the street. Faour succeeds at establishing both the deep anxiety of her character, and sweet, cheerful front she puts up in the company of others.

In the meantime, Fadi encounters trouble settling at the local high school, despite the help from his cousin, Salma (Alia Shawkat). A group of bullies target him, focusing on his ethnicity. The effects of having an Arab identity in a post-9/11 world are also explored in the film. The sort people who lump all Arabs in a single, uniform category don’t fail to complicate the lives of the main characters and their family. School debates over the causes or terrorism add to the escalating conflict between Fadi and his schoolmates, and an anonymous threat sent to Raghda’s family causes tensions in the house.

The themes of the movie might be too broad to be thoroughly examined over the course of an hour and a half. However, the director’s realistic attitude towards the characters, and the film’s focus on a condensed and intense period in their lives makes it easy to feel a kinship towards them. The tone of the movie is ultimately optimistic, though it is more serious than the trailer might lead you to believe – which, in fact, suits the story much better. There are some elements of humour and wit, but does not take central stage; the focus is on the characters’ struggles and interactions. There is a constant feeling of anticipation throughout the film; it corresponds to the stress and uncertainty endured by Muna and her family.

In Amreeka, we hear a mixture of Arabic and English – sometimes Arabic with English words mixed in, a practice well-known to those of us who live in an English-speaking country, but speak another language at home. The dialogue sounds very realistic and spontaneous, regardless of the language spoken at any given moment.

Amreeka is definitely worth seeing, based on the cast’s charm, and the director’s attention to detail. Many viewers are likely to be pleased by Dabis’s attempt to diversify the representation of Palestinians in the media – and the characters certainly come alive as complex, real people. I caught this film at Cumberland Cinemas, where one of the staff members mentioned that the movie might disappear soon, due to sparse attendance. If it captures your attention, don’t hesitate to see it.