I was really inspired by my own experience, and specifically my own identity crisis but larger than that, I also wanted to explore the trend of reverse immigration, of the immigrant returning home after being in a host country or… — Cherien Dabis Copy Share Image
I'm always looking for ways to explore the politics of the everyday. For me, the proverbs were a way of bringing in this ancient wisdom that in Arabic culture is often quoted. Those proverbs are such a huge part of… — Cherien Dabis Copy Share Image
Some of my favorite all-time movies - Wong Kar-wai is just amazing. In the Mood for Love is probably my favorite film ever. Those lyrical montages are so stunning. — Cherien Dabis Copy Share
I think that you have to have a really specific type of personality to be able to both direct and act, because it requires enormous shifts in perspective. I mean, when you're directing, you're looking at the world through a wide-angle lens, and you're seeing all of it. You know exactly what's happening in every corner of it. You know… — Cherien Dabis Copy Share
I definitely did not play myself. As the writer of the script, I have traits of all the characters. I can relate to all… — Cherien Dabis Copy Share Image
When it comes to identity, that was an issue that plagued me for a lot of my life. It's something that I wanted to… — Cherien Dabis Copy Share Image
I knew that I wanted to live in a city, but had never really been to New York. But I was begging my parents… — Cherien Dabis Copy Share Image
From as early as I can remember, I wanted to have something to do with the acting business. I was a TV junkie as… — Cherien Dabis Copy Share Image
It's why I fell in love with movies. You can sit in a movie theater and be transported to a place that you never… — Cherien Dabis Copy Share Image
When you step in to act, you just zoom way in on the longest possible lens and you're just totally in the point of… — Cherien Dabis Copy Share Image
I watch everything from independent art-house cinema to foreign film. I don't watch as many Hollywood blockbusters but once in a while, I'm curious.… — Cherien Dabis Copy Share Image
I discovered myself in the back-and-forth and in the hyphenated Arab-American way, and one of the things that I discovered was that I really… — Cherien Dabis Copy Share Image
When there's an actor involved, the actor's talking to the director or the director's talking to the actor. But when there are not those… — Cherien Dabis Copy Share Image
Jordan is many different things and there's many different parts of it. We don't ever really get to see a modern Arab city, a… — Cherien Dabis Copy Share Image
