In 1960s Long Island, a young Palestinian/Lebanese girl’s belief in America is shattered when her brother becomes the target of racist violence, forcing her to confront the danger of being Arab in America.

SYNOPSIS

A Palestinian/Lebanese immigrant family arrives on Long Island—
where the promise of freedom is shadowed by exclusion and racial violence.

Told through the eyes of six-year-old Shareen,
the film follows her first encounters with an American school system
that both exoticizes and marginalizes her.

Moments of curiosity and fragile belonging emerge—
but never fully hold.

Her older brother, Shukry, becomes the target of escalating racist violence—
from playground taunts to physical confrontation.

At home, the children are shaped by two opposing forces:

A strict father, determined to protect the family’s dignity at any cost.
A mother suspended between worlds, whose fragility quietly shapes the emotional life of the family.

As tensions rise between survival and belonging,
Shareen begins to understand that identity will carry consequences.

While Shukry is pushed toward confrontation,
Shareen quietly absorbs the growing sense that she is not safe.

The story builds toward a symbolic and heartbreaking climax on Halloween—
where identity becomes both costume and target.

Shukry runs toward an inevitable battle.

And Shareen, in a gesture of innocence and hope,
tries to shield him with imagination.

Halloween 1964, Manhasset, N.Y.