Movies/TV
Visitors to a Strange Land
By Esther Iverem--SeeingBlack.com Editor and Film Critic
Apr 18, 2008, 08:15

The new independent film, “The Visitor,” explores in a sobering manner the plight of Black and Arab immigrants—as well as that of dazed Americans—in the United States during the post 9/11 era.

Walter, a bored professor at a college in Connecticut, travels to New York City to deliver a scholarly paper at a conference. He goes to the condominium apartment he maintains but rarely visits and finds that a young couple—a man from Syria named Tarek and a woman from Senegal named Zainab—are living there. After that fateful moment, the lives of all three are changed in a profound way.

We experience most of the action through the perspective of Walter, played by Richard Jenkins, who represents most Americans who likely have little up-close contact with people such as his visitors. Tarek and Zainab are from countries considered, at the very least, suspect in the so-called “war on terror.” But, at the same time, Tarek and especially Zainab are also cautious about Americans.

Even though we experience the story largely through Walter’s eyes, the film makes us think about the concept of being a visitor, “alien,” or “illegal.” On the one hand, while it is obvious that Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Jekesai Gurira) are visitors—to the United States and to the apartment—Walter turns out to be a visitor into world most Americans will never explore. He winds up exploring the world of immigrant detention centers run by private corporations, not the government. He learns of how men and women in these centers might be sent away to any location in the country or deported with little or no notice. He tastes new foods and enjoys people who have far fewer material possessions but have a deeper appreciation for the ways the art, culture and creativity are the richness of life.

Walter becomes a cultural, social and political immigrant inside his own homeland. He takes lessons from Tarek in playing the djembe drum. He ventures to the park with Tarek and plays his new instrument. His new friends and experiences force him to examine his own life and he develops more sense of purpose. In one poignant moment, he admits that, even though people consider him a busy scholar and author, that, in actuality, his life is quite empty and that he is “not doing anything.”

Writer-director Thomas McCarthy unfolds this tale and revelation in a manner that does not feel clichéd and that does not render the immigrants as “magic Negroes.” In very different ways, Walter, Tarek and Zainab are all traveling through a tenuous life.



This review also appeared on Tom Joyner's BlackAmericaWeb.com,/i>

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