Lucky me, seeing Alia Shawkat twice in a row, unexpectedly, on a Saturday film night. This time she plays an American cousin to a Palestinian boy who comes to America with his mother. It starts out in Palestine (West Bank) though, and it's really interesting to get a sense of that place through a piece of film drama (other than the news or a documentary).
Main character Muna Farah is played very well by Nisreen Faour, as her struggles with her new life really come across. Director Cherien Dabis said it like this, elsewhere on the net: 'had a sweetness about her [...] a kindness and a childlike sense of wonder. There was something about her that was so youthful, and yet, I could still see in her eyes the depth of sadness that her life experience had given her.' That's what I was trying to say!
The story is more like a series of incidents, the main lines being Muna trying to find work and her son Fadi trying to regain his identity (though there is plenty beyond that, like how the family they stay with is coping). There is the school principal who befriends Muna, and there is the hostile schoolboy who opposes Fadi - and from there on it goes... and quite suddenly ends - leaving me to think this would have made great material for at least a miniseries.
On the whole it's a very sympathetic little film - low key and low budget - truly with its heart in the right place.
Main character Muna Farah is played very well by Nisreen Faour, as her struggles with her new life really come across. Director Cherien Dabis said it like this, elsewhere on the net: 'had a sweetness about her [...] a kindness and a childlike sense of wonder. There was something about her that was so youthful, and yet, I could still see in her eyes the depth of sadness that her life experience had given her.' That's what I was trying to say!
The story is more like a series of incidents, the main lines being Muna trying to find work and her son Fadi trying to regain his identity (though there is plenty beyond that, like how the family they stay with is coping). There is the school principal who befriends Muna, and there is the hostile schoolboy who opposes Fadi - and from there on it goes... and quite suddenly ends - leaving me to think this would have made great material for at least a miniseries.
On the whole it's a very sympathetic little film - low key and low budget - truly with its heart in the right place.