Hamzeh Mystique Films’ critically acclaimed feature-length documentary THE LETTER will be screening at the 22nd annual Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Film Festival (mnfilmfest.org) and the Newport Beach Film Festival (newportbeachfilmfestival.com).

LA Weekly calls THE LETTER “…a thoughtful, historically grounded and utterly absorbing look at a quintessential American experience”. Variety hails it as “…an especially dramatic work of polemical reportage on racism in America…A study of the American dream in collapse.”

THE LETTER chronicles the turmoil predominately white Lewiston, Maine faces when 1,100 former Somali refugees relocate there en-masse in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy –referred to as the “Somali invasion” by the international news media.

A firestorm of controversy erupts when the Lewiston mayor sends an open letter to the Somali community asking them to tell friends and family not to move into the city. The conflict escalates into competing “hate” and “peace” rallies held simultaneously and separated by only a few miles. The “hate” rally staged by Reverend Matt Hale’s World Church of the Creator, a white separatist group, and a “peace” rally organized by the Many & One Coalition, a local community group, necessitates the largest police action in Maine’s history to ensure the safety of the city’s residents.

Premiering at the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival in November, 2003, THE LETTER explores in microcosm the dynamics of immigration many cities and countries worldwide now confront in this post-9/11 age, and the clash of alien cultures and religions that inevitably follows.

THE LETTER has been written about in AP wire stories and will be a featured segment on NPR’s Here and Now. It is also currently the subject of an inquiry by ABC’s Nightline.

For more information about THE LETTER please contact:

For more information contact Bert Brown at 860-434-0309 or by email at Bert@HamzehMystiqueFilms.com