Written and Directed by Mohamed Diab
Starring Tara Abboud, Ali Suliman and Saba Mubarak
Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes
Amira will screen at the Philadelphia Film Festival on October 31, at 5:45 at the PFS Bourse

by Gary M. Kramer, Staff Writer

The intimate, affecting Amira may sound like a mawkish paternity melodrama, but writer/director Mohamed Diab (Cairo 678, Clash) takes a sensitive approach to a subject that, is, in fact, quite political in the Middle East. 

Amira (Tara Abboud) is a teenager in Palestine, who is close to her father, Nuwar (Ali Suliman), despite having never lived with him. A freedom fighter to the Palestinians—and a terrorist in the eyes of the Israelis—Nuwar has been incarcerated in Megiddo Prison in Israel since before Amira was born. But Amira has a strong connection with her father, a hero whom she adores. In solidarity with Nuwar, she does not eat when he is on a hunger strike. She uses photoshop to create memories of father/daughter vacations in Hawaii that they will never have.

As the film opens, Amira and her mother, Warda (Saba Mubarak) pay a visit to Nuwar in prison where he says that he wants to conceive another child with Warda. As they did with Amira, they will use smuggled sperm. Warda is initially reluctant to raise another child on her own, but she eventually consents. However, a DNA test done as part of the insemination process, reveals a shocking truth: Amira is not Nuwar’s biological daughter. 

Now, Amira is determined to learn who her biological father is. Could it be her uncle, her teacher, a friend of her father’s, or, perhaps even an Israeli? (Amira is told at one point, “Better to be a bastard than an Israeli.”) The investigation raises a series of interesting moral issues as well given that another critical question arises: Did Warda know the identity of Amira’s father? (She is keeping quiet on the subject). As Amira unfolds, and the truth of the teenager’s father is revealed, one if not both of these women’s reputations is going to be destroyed. Nuwar insists, despite protestations, they leave and go to Egypt for safety.

Diab’s talent as a filmmaker is that he visually conveys this suffocating situation with intense close ups that illustrate how helpless Nuwar, Warda, and Amira all feel. One of the best scenes has Amira illuminated by a bright headlight as she processes the unexpected news of her parentage. Other scenes, of Nuwar in his cell, to Amira in the streets, make the pain and emotional self-torture each character feels palpable. 

The three central performances are all fantastic. Abboud is ingratiating as Amira faces some difficult decisions. Watching the steely teen recalibrate her relationship with her mother and father as she searches for the truth about her parentage is gripping. As Warda, Saba Mubarak’s expressions are haunting throughout the film. In one of her best scenes, she allows herself to be seduced over the phone by Nuwar. But Warda is also a formidable woman who is willing to sacrifice herself to protect her daughter. Moreover, she must privately grapple with a horrible truth herself. As Nuwar, Ali Suliman uses his character’s confinement to bring him to life. A scene where he communicates silently with Warda through the glass partition during a prison visit is heart-wrenching. 

Amira is full of such moving moments, and Diab generates considerable tension and emotion as the film builds to its shattering climax.