• Listen to this segment

Palestinian American film maker Cherien Dabis’s debut feature Amreeka opens this weeks in Southern California theaters. Set in 2003 during the first weeks of the US invasion of Iraq, Amreeka is the story of a single mother Muna from the West Bank, who with her teenage son Fadi, immigrates to the US after concluding that life under Israeli occupation is too much to bear. Muna and Fadi find however, that life in the US for new immigrants is not that easy either. Despite a higher education and a career in banking Muna is relegated to flipping burgers at White Castle, while Fadi faces harassment by racist students at school. Presented by National Geographic Entertainment, Amreeka is loosely based on the experiences of writer and director Cherien Dabis, whose family immigrated to rural United States very soon before she was born. Dabis remembers facing ostracism from her Ohio community during the first Gulf War in 1991. She based the lead character of Amreeka on her aunt.

GUEST: Writer and Director Cherien Dabis

Amreeka is playing at:

The LANDMARK
10850 West Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064

and

The ARCLIGHT
6360 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028