Amreeka

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2009. Cherien Dabis. 96 min. USA/Canada. Color.
With Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallem

Cairo International Film Festival: Best Arabic Film & Screenplay; Dubai International Film Festival: Best Actress; Cannes: FIPRESCI Prize (International Federation of Film Critics)

"A wonderful portrayal of a warm-hearted, self reliant woman." - Stephen Holden, The New York Times

"Funny and playful. Beautifully written and directed." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Tim

"Amreeka stands alongside The Visitor and Maria Full of Grace as one of the most accomplished recent films about a non•European immigrant coming to the United States." – The New York Times

Amreeka chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with Fadi, her teenage son, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small town Illinois.  In America, as her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle.
Told with heartfelt humor by writer-director Cherien Dabis in her feature film debut, Amreeka is a universal journey into the lives of a family of immigrants and first-generation teenagers caught between their heritage and the new world in which they now live and the bittersweet search for a place to call home.
Amreeka recalls Dabis’s family’s memories of their lives in rural America during the first Iraq War.  The film stars Haifa-trained actress Nisreen Faour as Muna, and Melkar Muallen plays her 16-year-old son, Fadi.  Also in the cast are Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat, Yussef Abu-Warda and Joseph Ziegler. 
Amreeka made its world premiere in dramatic competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and played as Opening Night of New Directors/New Films, a co-presentation of The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center.  Amreeka made its debut internationally in Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.