The male partner of the young couple is Tarek from Syria, who is good at playing African tambourines, while the female partner is a Senegalese who sells trinkets for a living.
Both of them are Muslims. The cheerful Tarek enthusiastically taught Mr. Shah to play the tambourine and invited him to watch his performance. Mr. Shah was also infected by this kind of exotic music with a strong sense of rhythm, and his long period of boredom was somewhat changed.
One day, Tarek was arrested for jumping over the subway turnstile on his way back from Central Park with White, despite the fact that he had already bought a ticket. This incident caused a big trouble, because the police found that Tarek had no legal status, and Tarek was sent to the Illegal Immigration Detention Center in Queens. Out of sympathy for the couple and a strong sense of responsibility, Wall decided to help Tarek, and Tarek's mother came to New York from Michigan because she hadn't heard from her son for a long time. They have a common goal, which is to let Tarek regain his freedom! The two people encouraged each other in this process, and the two hearts gradually felt each other's warmth. At both ends of the glass wall of the prison room, White and Tarek could only communicate via telephone. But the friendship will not be blocked because of this. They, these optimistic friends, have knocked familiar and cheerful rhythms on their bodies...
Although the story of this movie is simple, it involves a very deep race, culture, etc. problem.
In the United States after 9/11, nationalism has risen unprecedentedly, and conflicts in ethnic, cultural, and religious aspects have been deformed and magnified. The result is that the past peaceful life is destroyed by mutual hostility and vigilance.
The film successfully created a ruthless state machine represented by the police and immigration. At the same time, it always hints to the audience: how important tolerance and understanding are.
If you look carefully enough, you will find the painting on the wall of the illegal immigration detention center that says "The strength of America, America Immigrants" and is equipped with four smiling faces of people of different races. However, what conflicts with it is the center's indifferent and ruthless service attitude and the ubiquitous electronic eye surveillance system. This is actually to tell the audience that the detention center is not only the unnecessarily "terrorist", but also the "The strength of America, America Immigrants" that was talked about by the world in the past.
At the first hour and 12 minutes of the movie, the hero and the heroine are walking down the street. The background is an old building with a sign that says: "Islamic council of America, madina masjid". Oh, it turns out that Islam is part of the American melting pot.
At the first hour and 19 minutes of the film, at the newsstand where the actor bought the newspaper, there are still Persian newspapers, Arabic newspapers, and even Chinese newspapers (Sing Tao Daily).
And more obviously, the Asian face pulling the erhu in the subway station, the African Americans who concentrate on playing African tambourines in Central Park, the Israelis who set up a stall with Tarek’s girlfriend, and in restaurants. The passionate Egyptian in here...
At the end of the film, Tarek's mother boarded the plane back to Syria, accompanied by a blur of the Stars and Stripes lens, which meant that her American dream became out of reach. The depressed Mr. Shah came to the subway station with Tarek's tambourine on his back with a serious expression, and slapped it with emotion. The rhythmic drum beat will more or less save the audience's frustration.
All in all, this is a good film. In the past few years, I have watched many American movies about reflecting on 9/11. American cultural workers are well aware of the dangers of nationalism and the separation between people caused by "counter-terrorism." Similar to this are Russian movies such as "Alexandra" and "Twelve Angry Men". These films have various styles and different styles, but the themes that call for understanding and tolerance are the same.
The scene in "Alexandra" is gloomy, the city is dilapidated, and the light of friendship is so weak that it is easy to be submerged in a heavy style.
The soundtrack in "Twelve Angry Men" uses Chechen folk music with a strong sense of rhythm, which is similar to "The Uninvited Guest", which can give the audience a touch of comfort in frustration and heaviness.
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