Ramadan at the cozy inn
An absurdist comedic documentary that captures Americana at its most unexpected. When a charming Bangladeshi woman arrives in Maine through an arranged marriage, her new American life takes a sudden turn: after her husband suffers a debilitating stroke, she is forced to take over the management of their roadside motel, where they also live among the guests.
A natural businesswoman, she transforms the single-occupancy rooms into a steady business by renting to recently released homeless convicts on government stipends, unhoused seniors on disability, and the occasional sex worker seeking a room by the hour.
During the month of Ramadan, between fasting and prayer, she tries to make sense of the strange moral landscape around her, and of the shocking criminal histories of her tenants, uncovered by her very Americanized teenage children through their online sleuthing. The story is both a hilarious and heartbreaking, a meditation on the meaning of the American dream.
