Alonda Hamilton

A dollar and a dream. It’s the 20th century and another young, but yet lucky- unlucky man wins a lottery, but not for money, it’s for his life. Ebrahim is about to speak his dreams and destiny into existence. This young man will deal with defeat, loss, hurt, betrayal amongst just the everyday life Lessons he is about to endure. The time and place are set in New York, a place where Ebrahim will also have to learn just like this place (New York), how it feels to have to stand, fall and get back up!

The characters shown are real and set-in real-life scenes. New York is the backdrop for the movie. In most of the shots they use what was used in the early 50s, which was natural light. As for indoor shoots some had an overcast of sepia, like a hazier hue. In the shot where Ebrahim is being pushed into his apartment by Diann, the apart gives a dated look and feel and the wide angles are bringing us into the ideal that we are in the apartment and are holding our breath as not to be heard by the crazy drug out boyfriend. The wide shot and also the close-up angles of the camera show us each character’s power. The overall editing moves us vastly across the story line but yet fits a lot of information into a shot framing window.

The ideal of the towers falling and also the symbols and language that create the ideal that a life and a place are changing, the race and socioeconomic status of the different characters is being pointed out with the words alien, war, and also how a culture is looked at as predictable due to social bias. Winning a Lottery to get an all American red, white and blue pass to freedom.

The director may have made this film for us as viewers to see just how bias, privilege and taking simple things for granted are what the Western world thinks is normal, but is it? The reason this can be true is this man spent 12 yrs. of his life fighting to come to a country where others are born and they don’t spend half of their life utilizing half of the things they have freedoms and rights to.

The Film the Citizen reminds me off two movies

1000 years A Slave: October 19, 2021, this is a series, and also Enslaved September 14,2020 a Documentary. Both of these films show a people or person looking for something to clarify them or give importance to their existence, I see this as what Ebrahim’s story was about