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Farhang Foundation is proud to partner with the prestigious American Film Institute for the 11th year in a row in presenting all the Iranian films at the 2025 AFI FEST.

Honeyjoon

A Film by Lilian T. Mehrel

Oct 25, 7:00pm

(Chinese 5 Theater)

Screening to be followed by a conversation with director, screenwriter and producer Lilian T. Mehrel.

On the lush volcanic shores of the Azores, June (Ayden Mayeri) travels with her Persian-Kurdish mother, Lela (Amira Casar), one year after the loss of her father. What begins as a much-needed holiday quickly becomes something deeper: a reckoning with memory, identity and the fractures between them. June aches to rediscover her spark, while Lela yearns to confront the ghosts of their past — haunted by exile from Iran after the revolution, and stirred by the urgency of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement echoing across her homeland. Amid their sun-drenched escape, the two single women find themselves awkwardly among throngs of honeymooners. When a charming local guide enters the picture, their uneasy détente is disrupted, opening the door to unexpected renewal. Blending humor with loss, and with the breathtaking paradise of the Azores as its backdrop, HONEYJOON explores the unspoken distances between mothers and daughters, the weight of exile and memory and the fragile beauty of learning how to begin again. – Mimi Brody

Country: USA

Year: 2025

Director: Lilian T. Mehrel

Screenwriter: Lilian T. Mehrel

Producers: Andreia Nunes, Lilian T. Mehrel

Executive Producers: Rostam Zafari, Sepanta Mohseni, Azadeh Vatanpour

Director of Photography: Inés Gowland

Editor: Harry Cepka

Production Designer: Silvia Grabowski

Costume Designer: Silvia Grabowski

Music: Retail Space

Cast/Featuring: Ayden Mayeri, Amira Casar, José Condessa

Running Time: 75 minutes

Language: English

Lilian T. Mehrel is an award-winning writer and director with a visionary sense of feeling and humor. Her debut feature premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won the Tribeca/AT&T Untold Stories Award. Her accolades include SFFILM Rainin, TorinoFilmLab, Film Independent, Sloan, CineQuaNonLab, NYSCA/NYFA, PDSoros and Marcie Bloom. She holds an MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and a BA from Dartmouth College.