From Omeleto.
A young boy awakens.
AN ARAB FAMILY is used with permission from Ramiel Petros. Learn more at https://ramielpetros.com.
Shahz is in many ways a normal young American boy who loves hot dogs and soccer. But one day at practice, a fellow player asks about his father’s accent, and Shahz comes to realize how different he sounds — and is — from his father.
The realization subtly shifts his interactions with his father, making for some sharper edges to adolescent growing pains. It also puts him on a subtle collision course with his father, as well as a realization about Shahz’s own difference from the world around him.
Directed and written by Ramiel Petros, this deceptively quiet short drama gently explores assumptions of belonging, identity and domestic comfort. Told through the eyes of a young Arab-American boy, the film hinges on a moment of awareness as his perception changes. He comes to hear his father’s thick accent — so familiar and familial — through the eyes of their adopted country, and it changes everything, including the sense of his place in the world.
True to a story about a shift in consciousness, the storytelling skillfully layers textures of home and belonging with those of the culture outside the home, creating sometimes striking contrasts. Opening with a close-up of a hot dog in a microwave, the family dinner features the kids eating hot dogs while their parents opt for more traditional fare, emphasizing the differences between generations. Those differences become a point of awareness later, when Shahz is at a soccer practice and another kid points out his father’s accent. Later, as he listens to his father’s critique of his game, he focuses less on the meaning of his father’s words and more on their sonorous qualities and how they sound different from his.
Rather than overt drama, the film opts for subtlety: tactile little moments like a father’s voice or a fleeting reaction speak volumes. Visually and tonally, the piece opts for naturalism rather than spectacle. The setting feels lived-in; there is no gloss or exaggerated aesthetics, but the subtlety makes the powerful shifts in perspective all the more poignant.
As Shahz, young performer Dustin Sardella plays a boy on the verge of adolescence, situated between childhood and the first steps of independence. Conveying the shift in consciousness and how it changes how we see things is not an easy feat, but Sardella does it deftly, letting a growing awareness of difference and otherness inform his character’s decisions and setting him at odds with his father, played by actor Ibrahim El Helw, who plays his love for his son with an exuberant affection. But as he faces his son’s disapproval as well as the change in family dynamic, he refuses to allow himself to be treated with condescension, teaching his son a valuable lesson about groundedness, pride and dignity.
The intriguingly named AN ARAB FAMILY may be specific in its details, but it rings true to many in immigrant families that navigate two different cultures, conveying the split between inside and outside, native and other. A child can be anchored firmly within his family, and yet "othered" in a way that he can’t fully name until that moment of hearing. It adds a complicated layer to a typical coming-of-age story, when children are already naturally driven to differentiate themselves from their family. In its commingling of tenderness, strength, tension and belonging, it also makes for a sharp and resonant piece of short cinema.
