West Bank Brooklyn

I watched this film at the AFI film festival and found it to be nothing less than a gem of an indie film. The film was shot before 9/11 in New York City which makes its message about growing up Muslim even more startling. The story centers on a Palestinian family living in an Arab neighborhood that runs through a Jewish neighborhood. Tensions begin to rise throughout the film when the main character secretly takes a job working for a dying Jewish man to pay for college while his older brother tries to keep a lid on a secret relationship with a anglo girl after he's given an arranged marriage by his father. Writer/director Ghazi Albuliwi plays a very funny character named Saddam who decides to become Puerto Rican and renames himself "Tito" rather than be Arab/Muslim in public. The director is a twenty something guy and is someone to watch.