MOVIE - Amreeka

Another good one!
Released in theaters 9-4-09
This was a free presentation as part of a special 10-city tour
PG-13 (1:32)
6-9-11 at the Loft with Sheila, Kate, Ronnie
RT:  87  cag:  90
Written and directed by Dherien Dabis
in English and Arabic with subtitles when needed

A Palestinian banker and her teenage son move to Illinois after it becomes more and more dangerous to live in Palestine.  Because of two checkpoints and huge walls, her 15 minute drive from their home in Bethlehem to work now takes 2 hours. They will live with her sister and brother-in-law, a doctor, and their three daughters.

Of course, it's not easy.  Bullies make fun of Fadi and confrontations escalate.  Muna can't find an administrative job, so takes a job at the local burger joint, pretending to her family that she is working at a bank.  But even as awful, unforeseen things happen to them, they make friends.  She is a bit overwieght but clever and has a sense of humor, so nothing that is thrown at her keeps her down for long.  And there are even some laughs along the way.

The families still miss Palestine.  They miss Arab food.  They are a family.  Good movie.

The Storytellers - Ted Lewin

Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1998
32 pages
For grades 1-4
My rating: 4
Endpapers: The city of Fez, surrounded by palms and mountains.
There's a glossary of Arab words and pronounciations.

Set in the city of Fez in Morocco, this story leaves us with a wonderful sense of what it might be like there - so very different from what American kids might be used to -- mules pulling wagons on the skinny streets of the marketplace, craftsmen performing their tasks for all to see --- we smell the smells (some unpleasant) and see the sights. Beautiful carpets. A walled city. Moroccon dress. And we wait to discover where Abdul and his grandfather are going.

Abdul's grandfather is a storyteller. They let their white pigeon fly free, and when it returns it "brings a story from the sky." The gathering crowds drop coins onto the carpet where the storyteller and his grandson sit and listen attentively to the stories.

This is based on something Ted Lewin witnessed when he and his wife were on a trip to Fez.

This is a superb look into the eveyday lives of another culture in our world.