Married to Anerica

A new film that lures the average western film-goer just a bit beyond their usual safe order of hummus and tabbouli into the spice cabinet of an authentic Arab kitchen to discover Fred, an Arab-American happily enjoying his beautiful fiancée, Jessica and his thriving Real Estate career in Southern Californian American life. Meanwhile Mama chases her Fred, a.k.a., Fareed down to marry the girl next door, that is..next door to his old house…in the old village…in the old world. A maternal tug-of-war pulls Fareed back into a world he desperately avoids. The more Fareed clings onto his American Dream, the more he gets pulled back into his worst ethnic nightmare of a forced marriage, an exotic wedding party and a pathetic honeymoon that lands him in the hands of LAX authorities with dogs sniffing in all the wrong places. The ultimate balance of East vs. West landscapes is challenged right in Fareed’s upscale LA condo where he tries to hide his new wife from the neighbors and the fiercely territorial Jessica. Inevitably, Salma, the shy and humble desert beauty, wanders into the concrete jungle of hip LA to explore her new world that she married into and finds herself more authentically in-tune to the “American Dream” than even Fareed ever could be. Salma emerges as a true-hippy by shaking up Fareed’s world in the most unexpected of ways. In her organic style of natural sensuality and intuitive earthiness, Salma helps many people become hip once more with her hipnotic rhythms of jaw-dropping, eyebrow raising and tabletop bellydancing. Salma reveals the veil, not the veil covering her eyes, but the one covering Fareed’s eyes! Fareed’s worlds collide and when they decide to have a party, he is the only one left out. The West falls in love with the new “Crocodile Dundee cross-over with Lucille Ball from the mid-east.” Salma franchises her “Hip-no-size Exercise Studios” that takes Los Angeles into the forefront of our new “Hip-Nation” thanks to Salma’s “Hip-Kits”. Our bellydancing guru of health and wellness reveals real-life miraculous truths about music therapy, physics and Autism. Salma’s international, yet still humble, success takes her on a whirlwind tour through Dubai’s modern Arab architectural wonders. This full-circle of Salma’s old village and the new Arab world of progressiveness balances the dichotomy of both worlds. Salma’s success takes her back home with plate full of ‘forks in the road’ decisions. She has the rare chance to help open windows for many people trapped in their own ethnocentric jails or to go back to her beloved village and live a more peaceful life with a father that needs her back. Fareed’s wake up call is discovered in his own arrogance which could only be matched with the stubbornness of an obnoxious donkey who must be charmed so that Fareed can find his long trek back into Salma’s heart once more. Samsum, the donkey proves worthy of more charm and dignity than Fareed deserves upon arrival at Salma’s private refuge. In spite of himself, Fareed redeems himself into Salma’s mercy and love once more. Together they realize how incredible the harmony could be between the East and West.