Amreeka

Plot Summary

Amid the daily humiliations of West Bank checkpoints, her boring job in a bank and her nagging mother, Muna Farah (Nisreen Faour) struggles to get as much happiness as she can from life. Her greatest joy is her son Fadi (Melkar Muallen), for whom she stretches her modest salary to keep in private school. Still, when Muna finds out she's received a U.S. Green Card, she's torn between doing what's best for Fadi's future and saying goodbye to her family and everything she knows. But after Fadi has one too many tense altercations with an Israeli soldier, the perils of remaining home become all too clear, and she makes up her mind to emigrate. Amreeka recalls Dabis's family's memories of their lives in rural America. 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. Written and directed by Cherien Dabis, Amreeka was produced by Christina Piovesan and Paul Barkin. Alicia Sams, Dabis and Gregory Keever were executive producers; Liz Jarvis and Al-Zain Al-Sabah were co-producers.