Poisoned Apple, 2023

The idea for this film came from a conversationn with my father about his experience immigrating to the United States of America. My father told me, "I never really wanted to immigrate here. The US was never appealing to me. It wasn't like some of my friends that moved here for a better job or to give their children a better education. I didn't want the American Dream. I was perfectly happy in Egypt. When I married your mother, we had agreed to stay in Cairo. When she returned to her family in the summer, I applied for a travel visa to visit her, but they sent me a green card instead." I grew up hearing him tell this story of the accidental immigration often. He has always laughed and called his Green Card his coffin. 

Later in the conversation, he told me stories of his childhood. He talked of when he was sick, he would always ask his mother for American apples. The big, red delicious apples imported from the states. I laughed and respond "You wanted the American apple, not the American dream." Within the last 10 years, my father and I have both developed allergies to Apples. From that, the metaphor was born. I wanted to connect the idea of not being accepted as America to the concept of the Apple as the dream. In this context, the allergy represents America's hostility to immigrants, muslims, and people of color.

Poisoned Apple is an experimental short film meditating on the sacrifices and harsh reality of what it means to live the “American Dream,” or what this film suggests, the American nightmare.