(2007; English, Arabic, French) "It's not fair!" Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) shouts at the officer on the other side of the window at the immigration detention center; to Mouna Khalil (Hiam Abbass) he whispers: "It's not your fault." Though it is.

A middle-aged professor of international economics, a loner, teaching the same course at a college in Connecticut for 20 years, Walter dismisses his fifth piano teacher following his wife's death. He misses his beautiful wife and her music (a pianist with a CD recording). Indifferent to the troubles of others (he refuses to accept a student's late paper, unwilling to even hear the student's excuse), reticent and taciturn, he reluctantly drives to New York City to read a paper at a conference when his co-author cannot attend.

For 25 years he's maintained a Manhattan flat infrequently used where surprisingly he finds a couple in residence, who have been in the rooms for the past few months. After an initial confrontation and dismissal, Walter inexplicitly experiences an abrupt change of heart, generously inviting Tarek Khalil (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian Arab, and his black African girlfriend Zainab (Danai Gurira) from Senegal back. Tarek plays the djembe (an African drum) with a jazz trio in small clubs while Zainab sells her bracelets and jewelry on the sidewalk.

Taking an interest in the drum, Walter accepts lessons from Tarek; together they join a drum circle for an outdoor percussion performance. Returning late (Tarek once again operating on "Arabic time") in the subway, the Syrian, having trouble getting through the turnstile with his drum, is arrested by two NYPD officers, accusing him of turnstile jumping; Walter is ordered to back off when he attempts to defend the young man.

Back at the apartment after having given the police his statement at the precinct station, expecting the misunderstanding to be quickly resolved, Walter learns from Zainab: "We are illegal." Though he says she may remain in the apartment, Zainab (uncomfortable being alone with another man) departs to the Bronx to stay with her cousin; Walter visits Tarek ("I'm not a criminal … I'm not a terrorist") at the immigration detention center in Queens where a poster on the wall proclaims: "The strength of America is its immigrants."

Coming from her home in Michigan, Tarek's mother Mouna unexpectedly arrives after not hearing from her son, who usually called her daily. Taking a leave of absence for the semester, Walter hires a lawyer, Mr Shah, who specializing in immigration cases tells Mouna (a widow whose husband had been a journalist in Syria where he'd suffered six years of imprisonment): "If I can get your son out, I will."

Denied asylum after they arrived in the US, the Khalils lived for several years without concern until 9/11 when the federal government took a harsher line toward undocumented aliens, especially Arabs. Convincing Mouna to accept his hospitality of her taking Tarek's room, introducing her to Zainab, and escorting her to a Broadway performance of The Phantom of the Opera, Walter confesses that he, more than they, is not what he seems.

My anticipation of a predictable ending to writer/director Thomas McCarthy's insightful film - Walter, an academic in foreign affairs, is the visitor who for the first time in his life comes into direct contact with the reality of the human suffering resulting from international distress - was denied. Instead, Mouna in distress over Tarek's fate cries: "It's just like Syria."

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Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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