Amreeka

I watched the film Amreeka the other day and I really fell in love with it. They made the main character Muna really lovable and you as the audience really started to care for her. The story is about Muna, now a single mother of a son who works as a banker in Palestine in 2009. War has completely destroyed her hometown and safety is no longer an option for her and her family. Muna's husband had left her, we find out in the beginning of the film, for a younger woman leaving Muna to care for their son. By her husband leaving her Muna becomes depressed and self-conscious. She no longer finds living in Palestine suitable for her and her son. They pack up and move to Chicago, Illinois to live with her sister and her family. Not having any money, Muna begins a long search to find herself another bank job in Chicago. All of the banks that she has applied to are not hiring her because of silly reasons but as the audience you know why, her race. Muna is considered as a threat to American's after September 11th and prejudice against her begins to show through all of the characters she meets.

The movie really opened my eyes to other side of the story, those who come from the middle east trying to escape their country. Muna is a good woman who just wants to make a better life for her son and herself and she is not able to do this easily because the prejudice she faces in our country. It made me sad and ashamed knowing that some people come all the way from a different country to find happiness and is faced with hate. It seems that once America has moved on past one prejudice they find another.