Jackpot! actor Ayden Mayeri and Amira Casar (Call Me By Your Name) go on a mother-daughter grief holiday in the romantic Azores in the trailer for writer and director Lilian T. Mehrel’s dark comedy Honeyjoon, which dropped on Thursday.
The indie pic, which earned the Untold Stories prize at the Tribeca Festival, follows Kurdish-Persian mother Lela (Casar) and her American daughter June (Mayeri) as they travel to the Azores to mark the one year anniversary of a major loss, only to be at odds over how to grieve and June’s bikini line.
Eventually, the mother and daughter link up with a sexy, yet philosophical surfer and local tour guide João, played by Portuguese star José Condessa, who advises them at one point in the trailer: “When a big wave hits you, and you fall, and the world beats you up, it takes time to go back in the water.”
Lela and June do return to the Azores waters and emerge with a will to find one another and to embrace life once again by the end of the trailer.
The release from Utopia’s Circle Collective will open in New York at the IFC Center on June 10, followed by a Laemmle Royal run in Los Angeles from June 12, the Laemmle Town Center on June 19 and Laemmle Glendale on June 26, before a play in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
Mehrel won Tribeca’s AT&T Untold Stories pitch competition in 2024, which included $1 million to make her dark comedy in time for Honeyjoon to have a world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. In her director’s statement, Mehrel added: “I make films to be an orchestra conductor of emotion. I love to fine-tune the fine-line of dark humor. I love surprising audiences with waves of laughter and feeling, taking you on a ride. Sharing the inside joke of being human. Honeyjoon is for anyone who lives with loss. For anyone who wants to feel free in their body. For anyone who has tried, and failed, to flirt.”
The U.S.-Portugal co-production is produced by Mehrel and Andreia Nunes with Wonder Maria. Rostam Zafari, Sepanta Mohseni and Azadeh Vatanpour are executive producers.
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