Enemy Alien

About the Project

Enemy Alien, a first-person documentary, offers a dramatic inside view of the fight to free Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a gentle but indomitable Palestinian-born human rights activist detained in a sweep of Muslim immigrants. Told through the eyes of the young filmmaker, grandson of Japanese Americans interned during World War II, this documentary takes on unprecedented intimacy and historical consequence.

Enemy Alien is not an account of victimhood but an inspiring story of grassroots resistance. Farouk organizes protests with his fellow detainees, incurring abuse from his captors, as the filmmaker becomes personally involved in the fight for Farouk's release. At the ominous midpoint of the story, resistance brings consequences: Farouk is locked in solitary confinement and his son is arrested in a counterterrorism investigation into the documentary itself.

Enemy Alien breaks new ground by giving a voice to a compelling character fighting the immigrant detention from the inside, and showing the progress of his case in gripping detail. As an educational and organizing tool, Enemy Alien offers a vital contribution to the ongoing public conversation about race, identity, and national security. Through a comprehensive outreach plan involving major web presence, educational distribution, and collaboration with grassroots organizations across the country, Enemy Alien will help promote awareness and spur action around immigrants’ rights issues.

The Fledgling Fund Impact

The Fledgling Fund is pleased to provide support for Enemy Alien. Without the film, we fear that Farouk's story and struggle would be lost. Like so many stories of injustice in our country, this one evokes our emotions in new ways and will bring people to a boiling point of anger and action. We believe that this story is universal enough to inspire a larger movement demanding a more humane and just detention system.