Amu (Mohammad Amir) positions himself as a "senior refugee". The whole family fled from Palestine to the United States together as a child. Twenty-two years later, except for the father who went to heaven, the family still failed to get a passport. The court dates have been delayed, and there is always a force preventing them from obtaining asylum. For this reason, when Amu saw the majestic police dog with his passport on his back, his mind was knocked out into the sky, and he fell ill after a fall.
The play is based on the real experience of screenwriter and star Mohammad Amir. Amir is also a talk show actor, and his long-term "senior refugee" status is his creative theme. I haven't seen his show, but I guess the scene must have more dark elements than the show. Whether it's a talk show or a comedy, the trick is to add sugar to the bitter water until you can swallow it and you can enjoy it, but it still stimulates the nerves the best.
"Amu's Way of Survival" poster
"Amu's Way of Survival" is bitter and sweet, first of all depends on the image of Amu Amir. This man is chubby and cute, like a big hug bear, always boasting that he is proficient in many kinds of martial arts. When using the trunk to sell fakes, he has a lotus tongue, and he can also play discs and repairs. His skills are adaptable to a wide range of scenarios, and he is quick-witted and very cool.
But Amu has a weakness: he cannot be legally employed without an identity, and he cannot come back once he leaves the country. Houston is very good, and my friends living there live a comfortable middle-class life, playing outdoors and walking their babies in the park. Although they are both immigrants, everyone has no troubles with Amu. Amu's troubles are not just that he can't get a stable job, and that he can shake into a sieve in front of the immigration officials. He also had concerns about the safety circle drawn by the golden hoops. Once Amu volunteered to recover the stolen olive tree for the owner of the olive orchard, and was accidentally locked in a truck and drove away. Suddenly, a text message on the mobile phone reminded him: You have arrived in Mexico. Capital exclamation mark! Amu, who has no passport and no identity, has nowhere to go now.
Because of his refugee status, Amu's living ceiling is much lower than others. When he is brilliant in writing and sparks a battle with villain drug dealers, or when he is angry and ambitious, and wants to be a hero to teach hypocritical white people and overwhelm racist bastards, the sword of Damocles above his head will respond. Fall, kill his majesty. He was fired, he held hands and begged for mercy, and he promised to spit out the profits in exchange for the safety of the family. Amu made all kinds of deals and compromises, like a fat gopher living in an amusement machine, standing up, getting knocked down, getting up, getting knocked down again. That's why he was so angry when he played whack-a-mole in the arcade. The gopher who was knocked down and jumped out screamed and laughed at him, and Amu seemed to see himself.
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But don't get me wrong, Amu is a jolly man by nature, even though he has never been comfortable. He is very good at jokes, especially good at making jokes in Arabic. He knows best what kind of panic the Arabs shouting "God bless" in desperation will cause panic in American society. It's certainly not the first time he's been called "like building a bomb" for the way he's immersed in electronics. Amu's best friend since the sixth grade is an old black, his girlfriend Maria (played by Teresa Ruiz) is Mexican, and there are old Jewish men in the cafes where he often hangs out, and the waiter also speaks Arabic of illegal immigrants, can only spit out a few vague English words. They were so normal and warm when they were together. Once they left the familiar environment, Amu had to remind his old black friends: "Don't forget that you are a black man!" "A black man with a brain, not like you."
The existential pressure that hangs over Amu like ambient music is weakened to a bearable level by the presence of the people around him. Amu has a brother and sister, an oriental loving mother (who can make the best olive oil), and a friend and girlfriend who loves him. The "blind well"-like killing at the bottom, fortunately, did not happen to him. Rare luck, good wishes and artistic processing are combined together, so that the warm Amu always meets people who are not too bad. The boss of the gang who involved him in the dangerous way of transporting drugs, there is still interest and Amu to a street battle. The rich couple whom he mocked as the clowns in political cartoons are also more ridiculous than hateful. The prolonged torture of their family by the delay of the American judicial system, put on a slightly human face when they reunite with the old judge of the relationship. Although the judicial system once again disappointed them, the miraculous encounters between people made the suffering a little more reassuring.
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These allow Amu to call himself a "senior refugee". The money they brought from their hometown was enough for their father to buy a grocery store and a beautiful small building to support the family to this day. Educated in the United States, he speaks fluent English with almost no accent, and only carries a small bottle of olive oil around him to indicate his identity. Too many people on the show can't figure out the difference between Palestine and Pakistan, and olive oil is a far more intuitive proof of identity, as well as Amu and his mother's homemade passports.
All who have tasted this bottle of olive oil will have expressions of surprise and admiration. "Palestinian olive oil is the best in the world." Amu, who is full of doubts and dissatisfaction with life, is sure of this. So if you have any doubts about this conclusion, please bear with the assurance that the Amu family needs. The best olive oil, the land that produces the best olives, is tied to the land that is being dispossessed, not even when they owned it.
So Amu was brave and wanted to take back the stolen olive tree, as if he could take back the land of his ancestors. In the dream, the smiling faces of the seven aunts and eight aunts gradually solidified, and the father who was regarded as a saint by Amu was still alive. The lively Amu lives in the dream of the past more than the average person. This dreamlike feeling pushes the plot from realism to magic. Amu, who has crossed the US-Mexico border and cannot return, lives on a phone and Maria.
That feeling of vulnerability is more empathetic than escaping through a late-night border check to America. After all, spectators who escaped the border were very few. But many people can feel the deep fear of not being able to return (escape) home without a passport.
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Amu is not perfect. In addition to speaking often, he can't keep his mouth shut and doing things, and there are many common prejudices of under-educated people. Amu, the screenwriter who plays Amu, is good at making these cuts. Amu looked down on the middle-class practice of asking a psychiatrist to "pour out" the big things, laughing at his partner who didn't speak English well for marrying a white woman and insisting that "it's true love", saying to him meanly: " Your idea of admiring blonde hair and blue eyes is brainwashed by colonialism.” He is also a little macho, but not serious, as he sees his mother and girlfriend as his protection objects, rather than partners who can share weal and woe . When it comes to the topic of environmental protection of "Mother Earth", he laughs and mixes miscellaneous words, and his level of thinking is similar to that of the stubborn young people instigated by the Green Party. The people present did not hesitate to sneer at this fool who was in the mud and had his heart on the earth.
Fortunately, Amu, who is always critiqued by life, has been reflecting and growing, breaking through his own boundaries. He later went to a Christian church and asked a free "psychologist" (Mr. Pastor) to ask questions. He wants to marry a Christian girlfriend. He understands that his partner's admiration for "sun-blonde blondes" is not the result of being poisoned by colonialism, but really because of love. And love does not treat the person you care about as a chick, but yourself as a hen, and everything will be fine if you cover the chick with your wings.
The season ends in the magical Mexican desert. Amu, who was chased and killed by Lao Mo, had no idea what to do next. Thankfully this is a comedy, and we know there will be a second season. The more dangerous the situation is in the show (an illegal Arab immigrant is hunted down by a smuggling syndicate in Mexico), the more politically correct it is as a TV show, and maybe it will win an award.
Amu's sympathy for the little Mexican boy who was waiting to cross the border before he escaped was nothing compared to what happened to the Mexican who crossed the desert and entered the United States in reality. The tragic hell road was shortened to a 1,000-meter cave. Amu's sympathy for the boy was also painted with the color of "silly white man" by his innocent and righteous indignation. The subtle irony and irony contained in it are worth scrutinizing. But in the end, Amu was right. It was cruel to let a child go through this. What does the horror experience of escaping in childhood bring to a person? Only those who pass by will know the taste. Thanks for sharing with us.
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