“The script just poured out of me,” says Mehrel of Honeyjoon, the feature film she wrote and is directing on Sao Miguel  Island in the Azores. The semiautobiographical comedy tells the story of an old-fashioned Kurdish-Persian woman who, after the death of her husband, travels to Portugal’s coast with their vivacious daughter—and how they each deal with grief. 

Mehrel’s pitch won the 2024 AT&T Presents: Untold Stories award, which helps emerging and underrepresented filmmakers. Mehrel received $1 million and mentoring from Tribeca Studios. 

Mehrel planned to pursue a career in medicine, but at Dartmouth she discovered her calling in storytelling. “In my hardest times I’ve relied on movies that make me laugh or comfort me or make me feel seen and understood,” she says. “It’s about the sweetness of being alive. It’s the dark and the light. It’s the absurdities, it’s the pain, it’s the laughter. I really love the mix, because that’s what life feels like to me.”

Honeyjoon will premiere in June at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.