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Growing up Nimrudni interview with Sierra O' talk to prominent members of the Iranian diaspora community.

I'm your host, Leila Shams.

Today, we're talking to Sierra Eurik,

director of the movie Junam. As you'll hear in the interview, I recently watched this movie and absolutely loved it. I cannot recommend it more highly. But to begin this discussion and

give you some context into Sierra, I'm going to read her director's statement

about the movie. We can't go to Iran. It's too dangerous. Maybe one day the political situation

will get better. As a child, I took this family refrain at face value. Growing up in rural Vermont

in an English-speaking household, my mother's memories were the only

window I had to understand my cultural identity. Visiting Iran was never on the table, and because

of that, I grew up without much connection to it. My father was American, my friends were American,

and I was American. The fact that my mother was from Persia, as she preferred me to say,

an ancient empire absent from modern maps, was just a fun fact that made me feel exotic and

mysterious. But in reality, for me, Iran was just food and holidays. Anything more was out of reach.

Junam was born out of my deep, dormant, and unresolved desire to feel connected to Iran.

Today, Iran is on the cusp of another revolution, and this time the fight for freedom

is being led by women and girls. These last few months, I have been glued to the news in my social

media feed, moved by the images of resistance and unimaginable bravery coming out of the country, and

heartbroken to witness the horrific crackdown against young people asking for basic human rights.

Iranians are fighting not only to liberate a country, but also an entire culture.

And for Iranians living in the diaspora, this has seismic implications.

The yearning that compelled me to make this film was born from the same profound desire,

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