Langston Hughes African American Film Festival 2008

Seattle Premiere - Adrift in the Heartland is the story of two women who weather the initial clash of their Palestinian and African American identities to share an intimate friendship. Aysha, a young Palestinian woman, is floundering in a new country that is not the land of opportunity for minorities she’d hoped. Meanwhile her new husband, a childhood friend she married when he returned for a summer to Palestine, has grown into a man trapped between his perceptions of Muslim identity and American culture. Jasmine is a social worker who must deal daily with the difficulties of the urban poor. Her relationship with Jamal, a manager in a Palestinian-owned store, exposes tension of race relations in the Chicago setting. Aysha and Jasmine meet one morning when Jasmine crashes her car near Aysha’s apartment. Misunderstandings riddle their first meeting, but they form a tenuous friendship through their mutual love of jazz.