Popular reviews

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  Review by omeed ★★★★★ 1

  When a film is so personal and hits so close to home, it is hard for me to judge it on a technical scale. Like I know Joonam has its flaws and gets a bit lost at times, but I was so enamored with this family and their relationships because it was like I was watching my own. It hits even harder as I currently have a relative from Iran staying with my immediate family (where I am luckily able to communicate with him easily, unlike Sierra with her grandmother). And just in the time he's been here I have learned so much and am "catching up on lost time," just as Behjat expressed to her granddaughter.

  Like while Joonam…

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  Review by han ★★★★½

  the scene where her mother left and refused to keep translating and the captions on her grandmother returned back to farsi? that was true cinema

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  Review by Spesh to Death ★★★ 1

  Joonam is a pleasant, if a bit unfocused, first feature by Sierra Urich, about her mother and grandmother and their relationship to the Iran they left. The camera captures tender moments, moments of anxiety and familial bickering, and some delightful bits of unexpected humor. Special shout out to Gary, listening to his classic rock, wearing his goatee, and being an all around dad in the background of the film.

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  Review by Tanner ★★★★★

  Profoundly moving and deeply vulnerable, Joonam is a beautiful examination on connecting with your roots, and accepting the inherent dangers within. 

  Screened from Sundance 2023 online. 

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  Review by lilac

  much too personal & introspective for me to connect with. the documentary style is fine, i was bored when it was just candid scenes like a reality show but the archival footage was really beautiful however scarce. doesn't seem like anything worth documenting.

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  Review by MovieGrant ★★★½

  Sundance Film 7:

  I could watch these three generations of Iranian women all day. What a beautiful document. 

  Watched at Sundance.

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  Review by Ala Eftekhar ★★★★★

  Beautiful! Gorgeous! I was seen truly and I hate being seen- but I didn’t this time.
  The film had the power to transform my own understanding of my existence and experiences, there was several moments I felt closer and understood myself and my mother better. The emotions of a diaspora Iranian can’t be expressed or explained easily but they were definitely shown in this documentary and I’m so so so glad I was able to experience that.

  
  
  
  
  

  Also also the technical work- holy shit every scene was majestic and made with passion and honesty the translations were unparalleled. The translations made the film soooo good

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  Review by Neeky D ★★★★

  Gave me Panahi's "3 Faces" energy.

  You follow a resilient, funny grandmother. You follow a daughter that lives with the trauma of her past. You follow a daughter that is searching for answers in her family history, to unlock and discover her identity as an American-Iranian. And lastly, you follow the young women in Iran fighting for freedom.

  This film, while shot in an unfiltered, rudimentary way, is powerful in telling a story of family, migration, and trauma.

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  Review by Lukas Fryer ★★★

  True/False Film Festival 2023 is officially here

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  Review by Hayley ★★★★

  So beautiful and inspiring, can’t wait to see what she does next!

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  Review by s_o_u_p ★★★★½

  I often think about my mother— what she was like at my age. Were we really all that different?

  How boundless the world must’ve seemed to her, standing on the precipice of freedom…or at least the empty promise of it. I wonder what she dreamt of then, before it all went wrong, somewhere…

  So I am left with this: what do we have to sacrifice, as people, in order to become the women we are today?

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  Review by Shenghan Gao ★★★★★

  I cryyyyyyyyyy
  I big cryyyy 
  I didn’t know I could cry at someone showing a city through crappy Skype video… but I was. 
  And it’s the first time I vibe with the Chinese translation of the film title: 我從未到過的故鄉. 
  There are so many moments of movie magic and so so special that it was captured on camera. 
  The ending when she appeared in front of the camera and her mom behind and her grandma from afar, couldn’t have planned a better scene to capture the relationship between these three generations of women. 
  I learned that you CAN film something so personal so tenderly seriously yet humorously and with lightness. And you CAN evoke so many emotions in people who have…