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The Visitor
A college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple living in his apartment.
2008 · Directed by Tom McCarthy · 104 min · Crime · Drama · Music · Screenplay in the scene database · 5 frames
Tagline
Connection is everything.
Plot
Walter Vale is a widowed Connecticut College economics professor who lives a fairly solitary existence. He fills his days by sometimes taking piano lessons in an effort to emulate his late wife, a classical concert pianist, and infrequently works on a new book. When he is asked to present a paper at an academic conference at New York University, he is not enthusiastic to make the trip, given he is only the nominal co-author and has never even read the complete work. Charles, his department head, insists and Walter is forced to attend.
When he arrives in his old apartment in Manhattan, Walter is startled to find a young unmarried couple living there, having rented it from a swindler named Ivan who claimed it was his. Tarek is an immigrant from Syria, a Palestinian-Syrian djembe player, and Zainab is a Senegalese designer of ethnic jewelry. He later discovers both are illegal immigrants. Although they have no place to go, they hastily pack and leave, but Walter decides to let them stay. Over the next few days, a friendship slowly develops. Tarek teaches Walter to play the drum, and the two men join a group of others at a regular drum circle in Central Park.
On the way home, Tarek is mistakenly charged with subway turnstile jumping, arrested for "failing" to pay his fare (although he actually had), and taken to a detention center for illegal immigrants in Queens. In order to prevent Tarek's deportation from the United States, Walter hires an immigration lawyer. Feeling uncomfortable about remaining in the apartment with Walter, Zainab moves out to live with relatives in the Bronx.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Tom McCarthy
- Cinematography: Oliver Bokelberg
- Edited by: Tom McArdle
- Music: Jan A. P. Kaczmarek
- Production design: John Paino
- Produced by: Michael London, Mary Jane Skalski, John Woldenberg
Cast
- Richard Jenkins as Prof. Walter Vale
- Haaz Sleiman as Tarek Khalil
- Danai Gurira as Zainab
- Hiam Abbass as Mouna Khalil
- Marian Seldes as Barbara
- Maggie Moore as Karen
- Michael Cumpsty as Charles
- Bill McHenry as Darin
- Richard Kind as Jacob
- Tzahi Moskovitz as Zev
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: Arabic, English, French, Romanian
- Studios: Overture Films, Participant, Groundswell Productions, Next Wednesday Productions
- Budget: $4,000,000
- Box office: $18,197,518
- Themes: michigan, immigration, illegal immigration, drum, search for meaning, meaning of life, meaningless existence, college professor, the meaning of life, roommate issues
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