Stranger at the Gate is sharp, and benefits from a tense and credible narrative. It’s constructed like a bomb – a heavy orb with a lit fuse, carefully and reassuringly defused by kindness on the part of potential victims and the bomber’s need for human connection.
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Russians are being charged with genocide in Ukraine. Central American immigrants are backed up at our southern border. Assaults against Asian Americans are on the rise. Black Lives Matter. With so many social justice issues in every news cycle, will documentaries about prejudice against Muslim Americans resonate with American audiences?
PBS and The New Yorker are betting they will. I married into an American Muslim family, so I’m all in.
An Act of Worship, an 85-minute documentary, and Stranger at the Gate, a 30-minute short doc, generated buzz with their world premieres at the Tribeca Festival, so I stacked them side-by-side for this review.
Stranger at the Gate is directed by Joshua Seftel (Taking on the Kennedys, Secret Life of Muslims, and the political satire War, Inc.) and produced by Mohannad Malas, Suzanne Hillinger, Conall Jones, Jeremy Mack, Anna Rowe, and Eric Nichols. Seftel read an account of this harrowing story in a local newspaper, and was inspired to make the film.
An Act of Worship is co-written and directed by cinematographer-director Nausheen Dadabhoy (The Ground Beneath Their Feet) and produced by Heba Elorbany, Kristi Jacobson and Sofian Khan. Based on a nine-minute short film Dadabhoy wrote and directed in 2017, An Act of Worship is an autobiographical account of Muslims who grew up in the shadow of 9/11. Dadabhoy, a Pakistani American, is sensitive to their plight.
An Act of Worship explains why Muslim Americans might be reluctant to welcome strangers at their gate. Relying heavily on the stories of three Muslim women, the documentary covers misdirected Muslim blame for the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the horrors of 9/11, the hopes and disappointments of the Obama years, and the rise of Donald Trump.
Dadabhoy opens her documentary with what appears to be a therapy session at a community center, where young adult Muslims recount growing up in isolation, enduring threats, and swallowing hard at tone-deaf remarks. Imagine being seven years old and having insults – and objects – hurled at you simply for existing. One woman describes eating her school lunches behind a portable classroom. A Post-It reads, “After I started wearing hijab, I was beat up by a kid at school. My teacher didn’t do anything.”
An Act of Worship: Khadega
There are intimate moments and engaging characters – Aber, in a lilac-hued hijab, tries to get a visa for her deported father to attend her wedding; Khadega, a Somali-born college student and community activist, has a tiff with her mother over a kitchen sink; and Ameena, a California civil rights lawyer, tries to balance work while making brown-bag lunches of halal food for her school-age kids.
The narration of home movies in An Act of Worship is sometimes hard to follow. Moving from one story to another gives insight into the plights and pitfalls of Muslims in America, but the broad focus and timeline of An Act of Worship sacrifice a deeper connection.
Stranger at the Gate: Richard “Mac” McKinney
Stranger at the Gate documents the planned bombing of a mosque in Muncie, Indiana, by U.S. Marine and war veteran Richard “Mac” McKinney.
Just how close did a disturbed Marine get to killing 200 Indiana Muslims?
That Marine has the bearing of a bleached sea lion with a scythe-shaped tribal tattoo on one shoulder. There’s no doubt, despite the passing years, McKinney could still assemble an M27, snap-click-yes-sir.
Richard McKinney
Stranger at the Gate is sharp, and benefits from a tense and credible narrative. It’s constructed like a bomb – a heavy orb with a lit fuse, carefully and reassuringly defused by kindness on the part of potential victims and the bomber’s need for human connection.
McKinney’s sweet-faced adolescent daughter opens Stranger at the Gate with innocent dimples and a verbal buzz saw. Every character in this true-life drama is portrayed in well-edited interviews and unflinching vignettes.
Potential victims Bibi and Saber Bahrami are self-effacing and good-natured. Bibi is a solid-built middle-aged woman who likes to exercise to country music. Her husband, Saber, a soft-spoken family physician, is articulate and effortlessly dignified. “I was welcomed to Muncie,” he says, “I regard this community as my family.” The camera lingers on the exterior of the Bahrami family’s large home as if to say, “See how normal we are?”
There’s a centuries-old French quote that translates roughly, “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” Stranger at the Gate says all it needs to say, and no more.
Stranger at the Gate
Like me, Seftel grew up Jewish, and like me, he connects to the Muslim experience. My husband’s grandfathers, both devout Muslims, lived in modest homes in Mishawaka, Indiana, not far from Muncie. They prayed five times a day. My own mother as a little girl tore toilet paper every Friday before sundown, because no work – not even ripping toilet paper – was allowed in her grandmother’s Orthodox Jewish home on the Sabbath. Though our son and daughter memorized the al-Fatihah, and we had Seders at my mom’s, all that remains of both religions is Middle Eastern food and a few choice curse words in Arabic and Yiddish. What stuck with our kids isn’t Islam or Judaism, but the importance of not fearing “the other” and the value of standing up for social justice, regardless of who’s being victimized.
An Act of Worship doesn’t carry the emotional power of Stranger at the Gate. This is Dadabhoy’s first feature documentary, though, and there’s much to like. The portrayals are sensitive. The use of Post-its as gut punches and scene transitions is effective. With her insider perspective, Dadabhoy gives the audience a genuine empathy for Muslim women.
An Act of Worship: Aber and her mother
At a time when violence against minorities is an everyday occurrence, Stranger at the Gate is a testament to our shared humanity. Still, I can’t help but think about the tragic shooting deaths of nine African American Christians who, seven years ago, let a troubled young man join them in a church basement in Charleston, South Carolina.
Was it brave of the Muncie Muslims to follow the sayings of the prophet Mohammed and open their mosque to McKinney? Was it stupid? …Was it both?
Before the Tribeca Festival came to a close, POV, the critically acclaimed Public Broadcasting System documentary series, acquired An Act of Worship, and The New Yorker bought the rights to Stranger at the Gate. Seftel’s documentary was also honored by a special jury mention.
Thanks to PBS and The New Yorker, both documentaries will gain a wider audience in the coming months.
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All images are courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival and the filmmakers.
