Salt Lake Tribune Review

Sometimes our images of the American dream -- vast plains, bountiful supermarkets, fast food as far as the eye can see -- are so familiar that we don't notice them until a wonderful movie like "Amreeka" comes along to remind us what they look like to a newcomer.

The newcomer in this movie is Muna Farah (played by Haifa-trained actress Nisreen Faour, a charming discovery), a Palestinian divorcee eager to get herself and her teen son, Fadi (Melkar Muallem), out of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. One day, their chance arrives -- a visa that would allow them to move to the United States, where Muna's sister Raghda (Hiam Abbass, from "The Visitor") lives with her doctor husband, Nabeel (Yussef Abu Warda), and their three daughters.

But moving to America isn't the end to Muna's worries. The day she and Fadi arrive in the Illinois town where Raghda and Nabeel live is March 20, 2003 -- the day the United States began bombing Baghdad, launching the current Iraq War. Anti-Arab sentiment runs high. Nabeel's patients are leaving for other doctors, while Fadi and his cousin Salma (Alia Shawkat, from "Whip It") deal with redneck classmates calling them racist names. Meanwhile Muna, short of cash, tries to land a job at a local bank (as she did back home), but ends up instead flipping burgers at the local White Castle.

Director-writer Cherien Dabis drew the story from life -- she's a Palestinian, born in Nebraska, raised in Jordan and living in Ohio when the first Iraq War began -- and the script is brimming with tiny details that lend it authenticity, from the scary dogs at U.S. Customs to the feel of Muna's first snowfall.

Dabis' dialogue explores the cultural gaps that define the immigrant experience. Raghda has trouble dealing with her Americanized daughters, while Fadi is eager to jump into U.S. high-school life. Muna laughs when White Castle co-worker Matt introduces himself, because the word "mat" in Arabic means "death" (something the piercing-heavy Matt finds very cool). Raghda, having lived 15 years in America, says she would do anything to move back to Palestine -- but Muna tells her it's not the same place Raghda once knew.

"Amreeka" moves wistfully and a bit ambiguously, as Dabis never tells us how to think about Muna's journey into the American heartland. She instead shares her experience of arriving in a strange new land where hope and hardship come hand in hand. If that's not an American story, then there is no such thing.

-- Sean P. Means

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