Eight episodes, and as many fragments of the United States through portraits of immigrants: the series “Little America” returns to Apple TV+ for its second season on Friday, with the desire to question the “American dream”, he explains to AFP one of its creators and producers, Sian Heder.
From the Song family and their hat shop-workshop in Detroit, to Jibril, a Somali cook from Minneapolis – inspired by chef Jamal Hashi – and his delicious camel meat skewers, this “American dream” and his ideal successful imagination a manpower and perseverance emerges again in the slices of life that unfold in each episode in less than 40 minutes.
But the price to pay in terms of uprooting, material hardships, family pressure to succeed and, at times, the simple disappointment of finding New York artificial and futile, appear in the episodes, inspired by true stories. Like the one in which Zahir, an Afghan pianist who arrived in New York to escape the Taliban, ends up being able to enroll in the conservatory, but far from his mother who remained in the country.
“One of the themes we really wanted to explore was +what happens when the American dream doesn’t work out as intended?+,” explains Sian Heder, one of the creators of the series, which Pakistani-American actor Kumail Nanjiani notably plays in.
– “Pressure” –
For the director of “CODA”, the American version of “The Aries Family”, which triumphed at the 2022 Oscars, it is a matter of demonstrating that “the very idea of America which consists in saying + roll up your sleeves + , capitalism, and + it’s up to you to make it work +, it puts incredible pressure on people.”
“It’s the land of opportunity, but there aren’t many safety nets in this country to catch you if you don’t succeed,” she adds.
After a first season released in early 2020, during Donald Trump’s tenure, in which “we felt we had to be very optimistic and positive”, this time there is “probably more freedom to explore the nuances and (the complexities) of does this dream mean?
The series is adapted from portraits of immigrants sketched by Epic Magazine. Some are not lacking in humor or levity, like this episode in which a Sri Lankan immigrant in Texas participates in a “car-kissing” contest, where the winner is whoever stays glued to the bodywork the longest. Other episodes are declined in a podcast.
“What we’re looking for in our subjects, (these) are very ordinary people, in a way,” sums up Sian Heder.
Neither heroes nor victims, the characters are not all equally successful, but they manage to carve out a place for themselves and add their stone to the diversity of the United States, “such a melting pot”.
This cultural mosaic can be found in the dialogues of the actors, often in the original language, and in some details such as the dishes on the table. Each episode concludes with an epilogue where we discover the real character who inspired the story.
“I think through our efforts to try to represent their true experience, you get a much more accurate portrayal of what it’s like to live here,” adds Sian Heder.
