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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August 2008, page 49 Arab-American Activism “AmericanEast” Comes to DC
THE FILM “AmericanEast” was screened as part of FilmFest DC, the Washington, DC International Film Festival, on April 26 to a packed Regal Gallery Place Theater. The film deals with the trials and tribulations faced by Arabs and Arab Americans living in the post-9/11 United States. Director Hesham Issawi explained the film best when he wrote, “The story examines long-held misunderstandings about Arabic and Islamic culture, and puts a human face on a segment of the U.S. population whom most Americans know nothing about, but who today are of particular interest to them, either from curiosity or suspicion.” After the showing director Issawi, along with two of the actors in the film, Anthony Azizi and Nasser Faris, spoke to the audience. Issawi said the film came about when he and Sayed Badreya [who co-wrote the screenplay], met with director Peter Farrelly of Farrelly Brothers fame to discuss ideas for future projects. Farrelly was so taken by Badreya’s experience as an Arab-American actor forced to play a Middle Eastern terrorist over and over again, that Farrelly told Badreya that he should write a script about himself. Issawi’s immediate reaction, he said, was “But who would want to watch it? People in Hollywood don’t like us.” Farrelly’s answer was just as quick: “It’s not that they hate you; they just don’t know you.” “This was like an epiphany,” Issawi recalled—and within three months he and Badreya had completed a first draft of the film. Badreya plays Moustafa, who wants to open a Middle Eastern restaurant with his Jewish friend Sam, played by Tony Shaloub. Another character in the film, Omar, played by Kais Nashif, knows he can play any part, but Hollywood only gives him roles as a terrorist or fanatic. “Every [Arab] actor goes through what Omar went through, and they get angry,” Issawi said. “But what can they do?” Just as the scene was portrayed in the film, Faris told his own agent that he refused to take any more crazed killer roles—and since then, he told this reporter he hasn’t had steady work. “AmericanEast” has been shown in festivals from India to Germany, Issawi said, noting that audiences in India and Dubai were far more open to the concept of the film than in the country of his birth, Egypt, which is also the birthplace of the main characters. Egyptians objected to the film’s message of co-existence between Arab- and Jewish-Americans, he said, and felt the FBI character in the movie was not realistic, not hostile enough. Azizi, who is not of Arab descent (his family being originally from Iran), told how he had attended the film festival in Dubai with Issawi and Badreya. After the showing, they took comments from the audience. One woman was very upset with the film and attacked it and the director with real anger. “She didn’t get it,” he said, “but the rest of the audience did and that gave me hope.” —Jamal Najjab |
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