Filmmaker Sierra Urich grew up in rural Vermont, a place and an upbringing far removed from her mother Mitra’s and her grandmother Behjat’s homeland of Iran. Only knowing Iran through family stories, food, and holidays—and with the prospect of travel to the country a seemingly impossible dream—she embarks on a personal quest to make sense of her fractured Iranian identity. Navigating barriers of language and culture and complications of geopolitical conflict and displacement, Sierra turns to Mitra and Behjat to construct a deeply moving and sometimes disarmingly funny portrait of three generations of women and their complex relationship to an Iran of the past. Named for a Farsi term of endearment, Joonam is infused with humor and heart. Interrogating family history and memory, including her grandmother’s experiences as a preteen bride and her mother’s rebellious teenage years during the Iranian Revolution, Sierra constructs a rich, personal film that poignantly reflects the experiences of the Iranian diasporic community and speaks to anyone affected by the dislocation that accompanies immigration.

Joonam is a participant of the 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab.