MARYAM

Year: 2000
USA: Streetlight Films
Cast: Sabine Singh, Maz Jobrani, David Ackert, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Michael Blieden, Victor Jory, Jason Nash, Mariam Parris, Goli Samii, Shaun Toub
Director: Ramin Serry
USA: 87 mins
USA Release Date: 8 March 2002 (Limited Release - Los Angeles)
USA Release Date: 22 February 2002 (Limited Release - New York)


Synopsis

Set in 1979, Mary (Mariam Parris), an Iranian-American teenager, lives a carefree life in the New Jersey suburbs. However a world event comes to the fore when Americans are taken hostage in Iran. This instigates a situation back in the USA and there's a backlash against the Iranians living in the USA. Mary's world changes dramatically and to complicate matters further for her, her fundamentalist Muslim cousin Ali (David Ackert), comes to live with her family at the same time. This leads Mary into coming to terms with her own culturally divided background and Ali reveals the family's dark history force.