A seminar in conjunction with the Trinity Centre for Post-Conflict Justice
On 4 November 2025, the Trinity Centre for Post-Conflict Justice hosted Dr Sérgio Dias Branco, University of Coimbra, who presented a paper in conjunction with the School of English staff–postgraduate seminar series.
Introducing the speaker
Sérgio Dias Branco is an Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of Coimbra and a researcher at CEIS20 – the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies at the same institution, where he coordinates FID: Film and Interreligious Dialogue (https://filminterreligiousdialogue.blogspot.com). He holds an MA and a PhD in Film Studies from the University of Kent. He is the co-editor of Exploring Film and Christianity: Movement as Immobility (Routledge, 2024) and was recently a Visiting Scholar at Duke Divinity School to conduct research on film, theology, and religion. His work primarily concerns film aesthetics, with particular interests in postcolonial filmmaking, cinema and class, and other areas. One of his major research projects focuses on film, religion, reconciliation, and peacebuilding.
Paper abstract and reflections
The paper examined Amreeka (2009), Cherien Dabis’s semi-autobiographical debut, as a significant cinematic work that redefines post-9/11 Arab American representation while reframing the place of religion in diasporic life. Through the story of Muna Farah (Nisreen Faour), a divorced Palestinian Christian mother, and her teenage son Fadi (Melkar Muallem) as they immigrate from Bethlehem to the American Midwest, the film frames displacement not only as geographical relocation but as a layered experience of belonging, religious identity, and emotional vulnerability. In contrast to dominant portrayals of Arabs in American cinema — often framed as threatening, victimized, or assimilated — Amreeka foregrounds ordinariness, resilience, and embodied faith. The film brings religion into dialogue with peacebuilding, enacting what may be described as a form of diasporic devotional cinema. Religious identity is articulated not through overt doctrine or institutional focus, but through gestures, domestic spaces, and ethical conduct. Crosses on necklaces, meals imbued with sacramental resonance, and acts of intergenerational care embody a lived spirituality that challenges reductive constructions of Arabness as synonymous with Islam, while also making Arab American Christians more visible and enriching understandings of Palestinian Christian identity. Drawing on Hamid Naficy’s theory of “accented cinema” and peacebuilding frameworks from John Paul Lederach and Elise Boulding, this paper highlighted how Amreeka cinematically presents cultural survival in the textures and transience of everyday life. Ultimately, Dabis’s film reframes belonging as a dynamic practice of becoming rather than fixed rootedness, modeling spiritual resilience through ordinary acts of hospitality, forgiveness, and endurance amid hardship and conflict.
“The film reframes peace—not as a distant geopolitical abstraction—but as a daily lived practice of coexistence… Peace is not declared, but enacted.”
The talk highlighted how Amreeka reimagines peacebuilding through the ordinary rhythms of life. Faith in the film is “neither politicized nor overly theological,” but instead grounded in everyday “rhythms of endurance.” In his talk, Dr. Branco described the film as exemplifying a “culture of peace” enacted through small acts of resilience and the moral imagination of people navigating displacement with quiet dignity. Peace can be found within everyday gestures of care—a family cooking, working, and in the endurance of love amidst fatigue. Amreeka models a spirituality that finds purchase in persistence rather than triumph. Its “quiet theology of hope” invites viewers to see peace not as a distant geopolitical abstraction but as a lived practice of coexistence.
Written by Dr. Melanie Otto and Samuel C. Rogers