Coming toAmreekaIn herfeature film debut, Cherieti Dabisexplores a Palestinian family's trials insmall-town USA-and revisits her ownupbringing in theprocessByJENNIFER BAUMGARDNER

AMREEKA IS A FUNNY AND SWEET FILM, butit is also an immigrant's tale, one filled withsmall betrayals that slowly accumulate andweigh heavily on its subjects. In the film, thefirst feature from Cherien Dabis, a Palestiniansingle mother, Muna Farah, and her 16-year-oldson, Fadi, emigrate to the United States in 2003during the second American invasion ofIraq.Here, the American dream eludes them: Munafeels lucky to get aJob at aWhite Castle in asuburban Illinois community, even though sheworked at abank in Ramallah. Fadi is arrestedand accused ofmaking terrorist threats afterfacing down a group of thugs at school whowere harassing his mother.

Dabis, 32,once lived through her ownversion ofAm reek a, the Arabic word for"America." As a girl, she prayed that she'd "wakeup with blue eyes and blond hair" -anythingto fit into small-town life in Celina, Ohio,where her Palestinian-born father had athriving pediatrics practice. Dabis didn't lookparticularly Middle Eastern. Her Jordanianmother wasn't veiled, and the family wasChristian. But in Celina they were dramaticallyforeign to their neighbors, who werepredominantly German and Lutheran.

Even so, her father was once somethingof a town hero. "I was always hearing thingslike 'Your dad saved so-and-so's life:" Dabissays. That all changed in 1991with the start ofOperation Desert Storm. Her father abandonedhis practice after patients stopped coming.Death threats filled the family mailbox, and thelocal newspaper even published letters frompeople suggesting "those Arabs leave town."

The turmoil went from unbearable toludicrous, Dabis says,when the Secret Servicearrived at Dabis's high school when she was14years old to investigate a rumor that her17-year-old sister, Faten, had threatened to killthe president. Bythen, "I had awakened to thepolitics of the situation:' she says. "I felt like abridge growing up: I wasn't American enough

72 THE ADVOCATE September 2009

for the Americans, I wasn't Arab enough forthe Arabs. I was always having to explain tothe other side who the other people were.Being caught between two worlds was verymuch my story."

Dabis initially committed to changingthe world through public policy and themedia. She worked in public relations inWashington, D.C., during the MonicaLewinsky scandal, but left feeling "there isno room for truth in politics," she says. "Irealized that the only way 1would be ableto say what 1wanted to say was throughfiction-maybe then people would let theirguard down and listen."

Two days before the September 11attacks, Dabis moved to New York City tobegin film school at Columbia University.She witnessed yet another surge in MiddleEastern stereotypes, but this time, somethingwas different. "There was a real movementwithin the Arab-American communityof people investing in media, personally,financially, and really understanding that weneed to tell our stories," Dabis says.Amreekais one such result.

Dabis wrote the screenplay for the filmwhile at Columbia and submitted it to IleneChaiken, the creator of Showtime's hit lesbiansoap opera, The L Word. After graduating,

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Dabis wrote for Chaiken's show. Also on The LWord, she worked with director Rose Troche,who was her romantic partner for a time.

The two are no longer a couple, and Dabisdoesn't identify as gay or straight or along thelines of sexual orientation at all. But she is farfrom classically closeted. She finds her prideand sense ofurgency around "being Arab,and particularly around being Palestinian-American. Some people do fit within a [sexualorientation] label and are comfortable using[one],"she says, "but! don't want to feel forcedto have to use a label."

These days Dabis is cautiouslyoptimistic about the film and Palestinians."Since age 14,I have been obsessed with theway the media was perpetuating stereotypesthat were directly affecting my family," shesays. "But recently there was a 60Minutesspecial on what it was to be Palestinianin the West Bank-that was just hugelyshocking to me. There has been a shift."Toward the end ofAm reek a,Fadi, defeatedand bitter after his arrest, insists that he andhis mother don't belong in America. Munareplies, "If we don't belong here, then wheredo we belong? We have every right to behere, just like anyone else."

"The important thing," Muna concludes,boring into her son's eyes the way only a

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"I I'ealized that theonly way Iwouldbe able to say

what Iwanted tosay was through

fiction-maybe thenpeople would lettheh- guard down

and listen."mother can, "is that you can't let anyone makeyou question who you are."

In helping Muna articulate the Americandream, Dabis finally saw the potential of herown dreams. ''When I started film school Idid two things," she says. "1started therapyand 1made a conscious effort that whatever 1lacked in talent 1would make up for with hardwork. So I really worked my ass off in filmschool, and I applied for everything." Dabispauses to consider all that has happened-andthe scholarships and prizes she's won-sinceshe decided to make films, then says, "Hardwork really paid off, actually." +

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