In 1960s Long Island, a wide-eyed Palestinian/Lebanese girl struggles to adapt to her new American life as her older brother’s violent encounters with racism shatter her sense of safety and expose the harsh reality beneath the promise of the American dream.

Based on a true story, Dirty Ayrab, Dirty Ayrab is a coming-of-age drama set in 1960s suburban America, following a Palestinian/ Lebanese immigrant family newly arrived on Long Island as they attempt to assimilate into a culture that both promises opportunity and delivers hostility.

Told primarily through the eyes of six-year-old Shareen, the film tracks her first days navigating an American school system that exoticizes and marginalizes her in equal measure. While she experiences moments of curiosity, connection, and fragile belonging, her older brother Shukry becomes the immediate target of violent racism from classmates—escalating from playground taunts to physical altercations.

At home, the children are shaped by a strict father, Abdallah who is determined to protect the family’s dignity at any cost, and a fragile yet deeply loving mother, Ruth who struggles to reconcile pride in their heritage with the pressure to conform.

As tensions mount between survival, assimilation, and identity, Shukry is forced into repeated confrontations that test his resilience, while Shareen absorbs the emotional and psychological toll of witnessing both external hatred and internal discipline.

The narrative builds toward a symbolic and heartbreaking climax on Halloween, where cultural identity becomes both costume and target—culminating in a moment of defiance as Shukry runs toward inevitable confrontation, and Shareen, in a gesture of innocence and hope, attempts to shield him with imagination.