Honeyjoon (2026), by Lilian T. Mehrel

Source: press release

Seen from above, Earth is majestic. I started traveling by plane relatively late, in my 20s. It’s been over a decade now, but I still prefer to not sit by the window. But I do peek and can see some great visuals from inside the plane, above the clouds, the lands, the seas. “Honeyjoon” starts with these sightings from inside a plane to tell the story of an unlikely mother-daughter trip.

June (Ayden Mayeri) is on vacation with her mother, Lela (Amira Casar). They are visiting an island in Azores June’s father, Lela’s husband, liked very much, but he couldn’t take them there because he died. Couples go there on their honeymoons. Lela is having a hard time, which she faces by mocking happy couples on the infinite border pool and crying in the sauna.

Lela comes from Iran and is Kurdish. She had to flee after the 1979 Revolution, “when those monsters took over”, she tells a tour guide. Like most of us, feminists, she has her eyes still in Iran, ready to denounce the persecution of women such as Masa Amini. But June doesn’t want their trip to be soaked in politics.

They have a reason to be doing this trip: it’s the one-year anniversary of June’s father’s passing. Instead of spreading his ashes, they have a lock of hair to let go somewhere meaningful.

Source: press release

June and Lela are in a key sequence dressed as opposites: during their private tour in the island June is wearing a long white sleeveless dress with sneakers, while Lela wears dark clothes: leggings, T-shirt and poofy jacket. In that particular moment, they are out of sync.

The tour guide João (José Condessa) mentions a sad love story about a nun and a monk who ran away to be together. I recognized it: the story of Abelard and Heloise. Lovers from the 12th century, they met when Abelard started teaching Heloise. She got pregnant, had a son and they were secretly married, but a misunderstanding made her uncle go and castrate Abelard (!!). He then became a monk and persuaded her to become a nun. The letters they exchanged from then on showed that they didn’t always agree, but at the same time the letters put Heloise in the place of one of the first feminist thinkers in History.

The island June and Lela are visiting is São Miguel, the largest and most populated island in the archipelago of Azores, that is part of Portugal. The island was even once called the Hawaii of Europe! The beaches there are known for being good for surfers and beautiful landscapes. The historical center of the capital, Ponta Delgada, is great for a walk. For those who prefer to explore nature, there is hiking to do and craters formed by volcanic eruptions to see. Speaking of volcanic, you can do like mother and daughter from our film and enjoy the natural hot springs where corn is cooked!

Source: press release

“Honeyjoon” reminded me of another mother-daughter trip movie, the French comedy “Dumped” (2018), by filmmaker Eloïse Lang. There is a bit of grieve if in this movie as well, because a woman’s marriage ended after years together. The difference is that death didn’t end it, but the cheating of the husband with a younger woman. The “dumped” woman is taken by her daughters to a trip that, like it always happens in movies, nothing goes as planned.

Director, writer and producer Lilian T. Mehrel has collected awards and been selected to screen her debut feature film “Honeyjoon” in several festivals around the world. About this movie, she declares:

Source: press release

Lela finds comfort in the words spoken by surf enthusiast João, who says that, when a wave hits you too hard, it takes time to recover. Lela was going through two kinds of grief: grieving a person, her husband, and grieving her country once again. Amidst a philosophical quest for happiness and freedom, June also found a way to grieve. “Honeyjoon” is a movie about love and loss. A movie about life.