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"  Cherien Dabis started film school in New York City just before 9/11, which triggered painful memories and a very good movie. Opening this fall, Dabis&amp;#039; vibrant debut feature, Amreeka, won a critics&amp;#039; prize and a standing ovation at Cannes. The story of a divorced Palestinian bank manager who emigrates to Illinois with her son for a safer life, Amreeka is often funny but the bigotry the newcomers face is all too real. &amp;quot;I was 14 during the first Gulf War,&amp;quot; says the Midwest-born Dabis, whose emigrant father is a doctor. &amp;quot;Longtime patients turned on my dad. The Secret Service came to my high school on a rumor that my 17-year-old sister was plotting to kill the president. She was so terrified, she ran a 104-degree fever. And a friend came up to me and said, `My brother could die because of you.&amp;#039; &amp;quot; In New York, Dabis says, &amp;quot;I blended in, so it was more a matter of overhearing anti-Arab things. That&amp;#039;s when I started scripting Amreeka.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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