Ryan Lake

The Citizen is a 2012 film about a man named Ibrahim Jarrah who comes to America from the Middle East on September 10th, 2001, with a goal of becoming an American citizen. After the 9/11 attacks that take place a day after his arrival, however, Jarrah is quickly named a suspect and is not released from custody until months after the attack. Upon his release, Jarrah faces many ups and downs. Five years after his arrival, Jarrah receives a letter saying that he has been recommended for deportation back to his home country. In attempt to fight the ruling, Jarrah goes to court and must prove to a judge that he is not a security risk and that he is a good person, who just wants to be an American citizen. The film’s theme balances between two well-known sayings; one being that good things come to those who wait, and the other being that bad things happen to good people. Overall, the film preaches the theme of doing good and staying positive even when times are bad, and the odds are against one.

In the 99-minute run time, the film goes through five years of time. A way time is depicted is through dates on the screen being shown. A couple examples would be when Ibrahim arrives to America, the date is shown; additionally, his release date is also shown on screen to show how long he was in custody. Other ways a time change was shown was through simple cuts, fade-to-black effects, or through character growth. Jarrah forms new relationships with people and grows strong friendship bonds. That all takes time to happen, and the formation of these bonds is one way that a changing of time is shown. It is also important to note that time in the movie does move backwards in the beginning as a future scene is shown initially, before quickly cutting back to roughly five years earlier and the rest of the movie catches up to that opening scene. In terms of how production elements contribute to the theme of the movie, one example is the scene of Mo in the hospital and Ibrahim there with him. They are both roughly at equal eye level implying that even though Mo was the one who was robbed and beaten, Ibrahim is in pain too as he is jobless and feels guilt over Mo’s condition. Both characters did nothing to deserve the pain they get, but they both experience it, even though different circumstances. Another example is the scene of Ibrahim in court, testifying on his behalf. When Ibrahim was not testifying and down on floor level with everyone else, the odds were against him. Yet, when he takes the stand, he is now overlooking the courtroom, talking to them, not with them, giving Jarrah a sense of power. It is this scene where the audience see’s Jarrah taking the stand, overlooking the courtroom and the prosecutor, that he is finally granted the right to stay in America and be eligible for citizenship. Jarrah took all the bad things being said about him when he is on floor level, and then, when shown more powerful, the good came to him.

Racism is a fairly implied meaning throughout the film. One way that this is shown is through actual signs people held up outside the courthouse that Ibrahim was in for his trial. Some signs are seen reading “No Terrorist” and “Thanks for Visiting, There’s the Door”. People are vouching for Ibrahim to be deported just because of the color of his skin and that led many people to associate him with terrorism; even though there was no evidence to support that. There is also verbal language heard that expressed the meaning of hatred towards those different than the majority. One man simply said, “Happy Hanukkah”, which led to him and Jarrah getting attacked. For the most part, it is white Americans that are expressing this hate towards Jarrah and the other man. This leads into how race and socioeconomic status were portrayed in the film. White people are depicted as people with more money while Middle Easterners are depicted as people with less money, who cannot make ends meet as easily. Jarrah could not find a job easily because of the way he looked and one person even tells him to consider changing his name as it will increase his chances of getting hired. Overall, white people are depicted as more better off while Middle Easterners are struggling to get by.

The director made this film to not only give a meaning to taking the good with the bad, but also to provide a different take on the 9/11 attacks and how they affected Middle Eastern Americans. The film makes one feel for those not involved with the attacks, but were treated as if they were. People did not want to accept the tragedy, and wanted to have someone to put all the blame on and express their anger at. Unfortunately, this happened to too many innocent civilians and still has unfortunate implications to this day. This film does draw comparisons to Patriot’s Day as everything that happens in both films draws back to real life terrorists attacks in America. However, the story lines in each go down two different paths. A comparison could also be made to Forrest Gump as both films deal with bad things happening to good people. But, again, the story lines are a complete 180. In a way, this film stands on its own.