Amreeka chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with Fadi, her teenage son, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small town Illinois. In America, as her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle. Told with heartfelt humor by writer-director Cherien Dabis in her feature film debut, Amreeka is a universal journey into the lives of a family of immigrants and first-generation teenagers caught between their heritage and the new world in which they now live and the bittersweet search for a place to call home.
Cherien Dabis is a critically acclaimed, Emmy-nominated Palestinian American film and television director, writer, and actor dedicated to telling complex, authentic stories about under and misrepresented communities. Esquire Middle East recently named her amongst “The Esquire 40: Meet the Arabs Who are Changing Film and TV.” Last year, Dabis was Emmy nominated for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for the critically acclaimed and groundbreaking episode “The Boy From 6B” on Hulu’s hit show “Only Murders in the Building”, starring comedy legends Steve Martin and Martin Short alongside Selena Gomez. Other episodic directing credits include Hulu’s breakthrough comedy “Ramy” and Netflix’s “Ozark.” Her television writing and producing credits include Showtime’s original, groundbreaking series, “The L Word” and Fox’s hit, “Empire.” Dabis got her start with her debut feature Amreeka, which she wrote and directed. The film premiered at Sundance in 2009 and went on to win the coveted FIPRESCI International Critics Prize in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes. It won a dozen more international awards and was nominated for a Best Picture Gotham Award, 3 Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Picture, and named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. It landed Dabis on Variety’s “Ten Directors to Watch” list that same year. Dabis made history when the film broke records in its theatrical release.
