If something bad in you wants to watch American Sniper this weekend, this is what you have to do: Watch instead Amira & Sam, a romantic comedy about an Iraq War veteran, Sam (Martin Starr), who sparks an unlikely relationship with the niece, Amira (Dina Shihabi), of an Iraqi refugee, Bassam (Laith Nakli), who used to be Sam’s translator during his combat days.

All of this should not work. It even sounds a bit cheesy and unrealistic. But this film, oddly enough, manages not only to draw convincing performances from the leads, but also to connect, with very light hands, American militarism with finance capital. Directed by Sam Mullin, who like Sam is a veteran, this film has moments that melted even my heart, which usually is as cold as a stone buried in the ice of Antarctica.