The Visitor
Ever since 9/11, the portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in our mass media have leaned heavily towards the stereotypes of the implacable fanatic, feeding our ready paranoia and taking over the place of the “Commies” as our ever-ready public enemy. What a relief to witness an American movie that presents a moving cross-cultural story of Americans and Arabs on a human scale, with genuine emotions. Such a one is “The Visitor” (showing at Landmark Theaters on E Street and in Bethesda).

Sixty-something Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is a university professor of economics who is running on fumes, having lost his beloved wife and going through the motions of teaching and writing. Sent grudgingly to Manhattan to attend a conference, he is surprised to find a young couple camped out in an apartment he has owned for many years. Victims of a real estate scam, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian man, and Zainab (Danai Gurira), his Senegalese girlfriend, have crashed at his pad.

Though they leave, Walter has second thoughts and soon allows the couple to stay with him. Touched by his kindness, Tarek, a musician who plays the African drum, urges the dulled academic to try his instrument. The drum's lively rhythms and Tarek’s ready enthusiasm trigger a rejuvenation of Walter's spirit and open his eyes to a vibrant world of local jazz clubs and drum circles. Even Zainab, initially skeptical of Walter’s interest in them, begins to warm up to him, and Walter puts his stale academic life on hold.

After Tarek and Walter attend a drum jam in Central Park, the Syrian is arrested for jumping a subway turnstile and determined by the police to be an undocumented alien. He is summarily sent to a Queens holding center and held for potential deportation. Walter becomes involved in helping his new friend with a sense of commitment he thought he had lost long ago. Adding to his concern is the arrival of Tarek’s mother, Mouna (Hiam Abbass), who cannot visit Tarek herself but urges Walter to serve as an intermediary for her son. He offers her his apartment to stay in, and the two, focused on Tarek’s release, form a tenuous bond, but with little hope for a positive outcome.

Written and directed by Tom McCarthy, “The Visitor” delicately captures the cadence of a man, once gone to seed, who begins to blossom again. That man is embodied by Richard Jenkins, best known as the ectoplasmic father Nathaniel Fisher in HBO’s drama “Six Feet Under.” Whereas, in that latter role, he was a smirking devil, here he is seen at first as a dulled presence with dead eyes and no enthusiasms (he cancels long-planned piano lessons at the film’s opening). Walter’s awakening, as embodied by Jenkins, is slow and gradual – very believable, in fact – an awakening to the new intercultural couple, to a new interest in different music, and to the new responsibility of caring for someone. His performance, lovely to watch, is capped by a most authentic outburst at officialdom and then a striking gesture – an homage to Tarek and his drum – which signals Walter’s new sense of freedom and connection to others.

Jenkins is ably seconded by his young co-stars Sleiman and Gurira, the first a bubbly extrovert who loves his new country but can’t escape his look and name in an anti-terror era, the second a sweet/sad creative woman longing to make a life for herself. The two effectively present a balance between the optimism and skepticism of the new immigrant while also sharing an agonizing poignancy confronted by rules they do not understand.

As Mouna, Hiam Abbass (“The Syrian Bride,” “Munich”) matches Jenkins phlegmatic nature with intimations of passion buried under a studied calm. Her initial awkwardness then acceptance of Walter and his goodwill are handled exquisitely. Abbass possesses a quality of both innate intelligence and dark-eyed smolder that this reviewer hasn’t seen on the screen since the hey-day of the great Irene Pappas. This is her first English-language movie (she lives in Paris), and she nails it.

Only the second directorial effort by Tom McCarthy (his first was the “The Station Agent” in 2003), “The Visitor” consolidates the taste, intelligence and casting acumen he displayed in that fine picture with this latest production. He tells his story in lapidary, measured scenes whose very modesty makes the eventual traumas that the characters endure that much more telling. Most Hollywood efforts would coarsen this kind of tale with an outsized crisis, some egregious sex scene or facile violence. McCarthy avoids all these clichés to place believable people in believable dilemmas, and the movie resonates the more for it.

It’s easy to lambaste the overkill of our “war on terror;” it’s difficult to meld our national security and immigration issues into cogent, credible drama, but “The Visitors” achieves this.

Filmfest DC Returns
The 22nd Annual Filmfest DC, Washington, DC's International Film Festival, runs April 24 through May 4, with a spotlight on “New Latin American Cinema” and “Politics & Film.” From its inaugural year in 1987, Filmfest DC has become one of Washington's major cultural events, introducing a wide range of world cinema to ever-greater DC audiences. This year the festival will present 70 Washington premieres among its offerings.

Filmfest DC once again presents “World View,” a review of recent cinema from around the globe with movies like “AmericanEast” (USA) starring TV’s “Monk” Tony Shalhoub (“Monk”), and an absorbing Italian crime thriller, “The Girl By the Lake.” The “Global Rhythms” section of the festival, which features music-on-film, presents several features and documentaries including “Fados,” which highlights the Portuguese soul-song in a film made by Spain's master of the music documentary, Carlos Saura.

The “New Latin American Cinema” features eight films from six countries, including “Elite Squad” (Tropa de Elite”) from Brazil about tough cops contending with slum lowlifes in the favelas of Rio. Included in its “Politics & Film” section is “Katyn” the latest film from the great Polish director Andrzej Wajda. Recently nominated for an Academy Award as best Foreign Language Film, “Katyn” tells the story of a long-suppressed Nazi massacre at the end of WWII.

The festival will also screen some local films, particularly “Jazz in the Diamond District,” a music-filled feature written and directed by Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts graduate and DC native, Lindsey Christian.

The distribution of this issue of the Hill Rag should be timely for people considering attending the festival. Tickets for most screenings are $10 each and can be purchased in advance at www.tickets.com or by calling 1-800-955-5566. Tickets may be purchased online at www.filmfestdc.org, which also has much more information about the programs.

Films on the Hill
In May, the local classic film series will highlight the dashing Tyrone Power in rich Technicolor, plus a silent drama from director Clarence Brown and a double feature of World War II adventure stories.

On May 21, “Films on the Hill” features “Mississippi Gambler” (1953), with Tyrone Power as a suave and noble gambler and Piper Laurie as a spitfire Southern belle, in a sparkling adventure set in the antebellum South. Directed by Rudolph Maté, this is a handsomely mounted film with sumptuous sets and costumes and some excellent fencing scenes.

On May 14, the silent picture “Smouldering Fires” (1925) tells a timeless tale about finding love in middle age. The film has recorded music accompaniment. The last show of the month, on May 28, includes a classic “B” movie double bill, both starring tough guy Bruce Bennett, who once played Tarzan before he settled into action dramas. “Atlantic Convoy” (1942) has Bennett as a fighter pilot captain in an action-packed WWII drama set at a US Marine flying patrol station off the coast of Iceland. In “U-Boat Prisoner” (1944), based loosely on the true story, Bennett is a merchant seaman posing as a Nazi spy who is picked up by a German submarine.