Tales From Arab Detroit

With each succeeding generation comes change and strife. Throw immigration and assimilation into the melting pot mix and you get double the stress: in Detroit, home of the largest Arab American community in the states, elders howl about traditions ignored or broken by youngsters who chafe, in turn, at the cultural restrictions and observances which they see as bearing no relation to contemporary American life. Filmmaker Joan Mandell captures both sides of this generational changing of the guard, shaping her main narrative around the visit of Egyptian storyteller Shaykh Ghanim Mansour, who has come to Detroit to relate in his native tongue the 100-hour ancient epic of Abu Zayd in a decidedly low-tech production featuring Mansour and his one-stringed rababa. The Arab American senior citizens are naturally jazzed (this is the equivalent of a Smashing Pumpkins concert to them); the kids--whose love of homeland and willingness to sacrifice individual concerns is not quite as pronounced--are not really thrilled. An interesting multi-generational reflection on what it means to be an Arab American today. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)