Cherif Youssef Chokeir

900140712
CORE1010-03
Amreeka assignment
Amreeka is a 2009-film that relates the story of a christian-Palestinian
family in both West Blank and the post 9/11 suburban Chicago. Although produced by
National Geographic, it isn’t a documentary movie, and it was made for entertainment. It
represents the problems that face a typical Palestinian-Arabian family who migrated to
the United States to have a better life than it had in Occupied Palestine; it focuses on the
basic problems this sort of family could have: integration problem, multiculturalism or
assimilation, hate for Arabs in relation to the 9/11 terrorist acts. Throughout the movie,
we discover that each person has a point of view on the family situation, and on the
identity problem.

At first, the heroin, Muna Farah, represents the typical divorced mother,
trying to do the best she could, in order to help her family in Palestine, and not to be
dependent on her sister, when she went to the US. She is trying to make her son get a
high-level education. At the beginnig of the movie she seemed the kind of person that
doesn’t want to get in trouble with the Occupation forces. At first, she was against the
idea of migration as she said, it would difficult on them to live as foreigners. She had at
first the sensation she is a minority, that she was given a bad treatment because she is an
Arab. She even said “We are minority here(in America) and minority there (in Palestine
as she is Christian)”. However, at the end of the movie she became more sticking to her
identity and proud of it as she said to her son “We have the right to belong here like
others, you should be proud of yourself and never let anyone make tou question it”

When it come to her sister, Raghda, she is the typical person sticked to her
Palestinian identity. She told Muna, she always feels “homesick”, that if she could, she
would take the first plane to Palestine, and gave the example of the tree that if you take
out of its roots can’t grow anymore. This point of view was clear in her attitude, as she
refused to put the US flag, as she always told her husband, that it is better for them to go
home. When her daughter tried to go out with American people and have their style of
life, she told her “as long as you are in this house you are in Palestine”. Therefore, she is
a woman that doesn’t ever want an assimilation to Americans.

On the opposite side, we find her daughter, Salma who wants to be

American, try the assimilation process by wearing American clothes, hanging out with
Americans and imitate their way of life as she said “we live in America, we wear
American clothes, we’re Americans”. However, this doesn’t mean that she completely
through out her identity, as she usually argue with the instructor about the Arab rights and
that she is against the American invasion of Iraq.

On a similar path, Fadi is a little bit prefering assimilation. In fact, he

prefered at the beginnig to migrate while his mother didn’t care much about it. But when
Cherif Youssef Chokeir
900140712
CORE1010-03
he got in trouble with his schoolmate, he said that being in Palestine is better because
they have their identity, and at least his mother had there a good and decent job

When it comes to the Rana, she didn’t show a lot her opinion about
migration, but some significant points could be taken from her words. At first, she often
expressed refuse to what happened between her parents. But as she felt she wasn’t
accepted by her sister, Lamees, she expressed the identity of the marginalised person who
feels he isn’t accepted by the society, which could be interpreted as her feelings about
migration.

Her father, Nabeel, is a man who is loyal to his identity: he refuses the war
on Iraq, and stick to the Palestinian human rights. However, he doesn’t accept the idea of
leaving America. Therefore, we could say that he prefers multiculturalism.

Last but not least, the school principle, Mr. Novatski is the typical moderat
American who respects multiculturalism as he refuses that all muslims (or Arabs) be
called terrorists, and he was very impressed when Muna told him that Check mate is an
Arabic word. Also, he helped Muna getting her son out of jail, and told the police officers
they couldn’t consider Fadi as aterrorist, he’s just a teenager. Finally, he went with the
family to an Arabic restaurant, so he is really respectful to their culture

To sum up we could just say that this movie represents many models and
points of view over migration.