AMERICANISH Film Review – A Film By and For Muslim-American Women

Posted on by Holly Fontanetta

Two young girls play and share a bagel on the brick porch of their Queens home. The door behind them bursts open and a man with a suitcase storms past them, followed closely by a pleading woman. The couple stops in front of the chain-link fence at the edge of the yard, arguing and pointing fingers. The girls are no longer laughing. They huddle on the steps and look back and forth between their fighting parents with confusion and fear. The man throws his hands in the air and walks away. The woman returns to her daughters, addressing the eldest.

“Sameem, don’t marry a man you love. Marry a man that loves you. He’ll take care of you.”

 

AMERICANISH Zeroes in on the Pakistani Diaspora

Set twenty years after their father leaves them for an American family, Americanish follows the lives of three Pakistani sisters navigating their careers and love as they fight to uphold Muslim tradition in a Western society.

Sameem sits around a conference table surrounded by white men. The men ignore her, talk over her, and steal her ideas. Her only opportunity for a promotion requires her to work on the campaign of a xenophobic politician, forcing her to decide between advancing her career or betraying her identity.

At a celebration for one sister’s engagement, family members swarm her and her fiancé, adjusting clothing and posing the couple for photos and carrying out traditional Pakistani rituals. The guests are dressed as lavishly as the engaged couple, dripping with bright colors and ornate jewelry. The photographer instructs the couple to hold hands and snaps a photo. A still of the photo flashes on the screen for a second. Before it fades, we see a happy family surrounding a despondent bride-to-be, who looks down, sad and conflicted.

Whether the characters are in front of the rainbow produce of a local grocery store, at a brightly lit newspaper kiosk, or in a wedding gown store lined with opulent dresses of every color and variety, there is color and life packed into every frame. In this way, Americanish captures a refreshing pulsing vibrancy. The costumes and locations are detailed, colorful, and engaging.

In this writer’s opinion, Americanish addresses the serious challenges of South Asian diaspora through the lens of a lighthearted romantic comedy.

Americanish is recommended to those who enjoy romantic comedies that explore non-Western themes.

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CREATIVE TEAM:

Iman Zawahry

CAST:

Aizzah Fatima
Salena Qureshi
Lillete Dubey
Shenaz Treasury
Mo Amer
George Wendt
David Rasche
Ajay Naidu
Godfrey

For more information and screenings details visit the Americanish Film website.

Images courtesy of Americanish.

Find reviews of more TOP PICK Indie Fiction Films here.

Holly Fontanetta

About the Author: Holly Fontanetta

Holly Fontanetta is inspired by narratives that capture the idiosyncrasies of human experience. She has driven absurd distances on a whim in search of character, including two road trips from New York to California. Holly spends her free time hanging out with cats (her own or strays - either is fine) and swimming in the ocean (Atlantic or Pacific - either is fine). Her favorite stories to read and write feature women overcoming extraordinary circumstances. Currently, Holly is learning to paint and filling her walls with strange art.

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5 thoughts on “AMERICANISH Film Review – A Film By and For Muslim-American Women”

  1. The reviewer’s writing style gives out a lot of adjectives to support her claim of the film capturing “a refreshing pulsing vibrancy.” The locations and characters’ appearances are given picturesque descriptions—“dripping with bright colors and ornate jewelry,” “lined with opulent dresses,” “a despondent bride-to-be.” By providing these same colorful screen grabs and mixing them with slightly less colorful ones—Sameem sitting around a conference table, the two young girls sitting outside the steps of the apartment—the review is able to uphold the vivid and rich atmosphere that it talks about.

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  4. Descriptions of the scenes and the set design and setting were detailed enough for the reader to see for themselves.

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  5. The strong use of vowels really brings the vividness to this review up a notch. Even in the very first paragraph, the image of the door “bursting” open with the main “storming” out of it paints a brighter picture than simply saying a man went through a door. The adjectives are also descriptive and used gently, only when necessary to paint a better picture. Beautiful job!

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