This is an independent film I watched a few weeks ago while recovering from one of my headaches. It was released in 2009 and is rated PG – 13. It’s about a divorcee from Palestine and her son who immigrate to the United States in hopes of a better life.
Like so many that migrate, the United States wasn’t everything they expected, nor was life as easy as they’d hoped – but in the end they manage to settle in and start to build relationships in their newfound home.
The film moves a little slow in places. It isn’t an action film for sure. It does, however, almost have a documentary-like quality to it in the way it follows the family and their emotions.
There is one scene in particular that reminded me much of my own family’s migration to the United States. The mother has carefully hidden her life savings in the baggage to protect it. Unfortunately, she hides it in the wrong place and it disappears.
When one of my great great grandfathers and his family came to the United States from England in the 1800s, the same thing happened to them, only with a happier ending. He had hidden their money in the pillowcase at the place they stayed their first night in America. The next day they set out for the day not thinking that the stash would be discovered by a hotel maid. The maid took the money – everything they had in the world. When they returned, the money was gone!
You can imagine how sick they were. The next morning a maid knocked on the door and had the money. She scolded my great, great, grandfather for not hiding it better. She had taken it so one of the other maids wouldn’t.
God was definitely looking out for them!
At any rate, I’d give this movie three and a half spoons out of five.
Like so many that migrate, the United States wasn’t everything they expected, nor was life as easy as they’d hoped – but in the end they manage to settle in and start to build relationships in their newfound home.
The film moves a little slow in places. It isn’t an action film for sure. It does, however, almost have a documentary-like quality to it in the way it follows the family and their emotions.
There is one scene in particular that reminded me much of my own family’s migration to the United States. The mother has carefully hidden her life savings in the baggage to protect it. Unfortunately, she hides it in the wrong place and it disappears.
When one of my great great grandfathers and his family came to the United States from England in the 1800s, the same thing happened to them, only with a happier ending. He had hidden their money in the pillowcase at the place they stayed their first night in America. The next day they set out for the day not thinking that the stash would be discovered by a hotel maid. The maid took the money – everything they had in the world. When they returned, the money was gone!
You can imagine how sick they were. The next morning a maid knocked on the door and had the money. She scolded my great, great, grandfather for not hiding it better. She had taken it so one of the other maids wouldn’t.
God was definitely looking out for them!
At any rate, I’d give this movie three and a half spoons out of five.
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