#babajoon

For this culture blog, I am writing about my experience watching the movie Baba Joon. Baba Joon is a 2015 film depicting an Iranian-Israeli family that runs a turkey farm in the desert of Israel. In the film, the father Yitzhak forces his teenage son Moti into learning the family trade, but Moti resists, displaying a stronger passion for engineering by fixing up old junkyard vehicles. Yitzhak remembers back to his childhood when his father forced him into running the turkey farm after his older brother immigrated to America. Yitzhak and his father work hard to instill traditional patriarchal values in the family, predicated on respect for the father. When Moti dares to disobey his father, conflict ensues.

While the film is not quite a pleasurable film because of its reoccurring tense moments, there are many aspects of this film that stuck with me. My first reaction was to notice some of the elements of traditional Persian culture from this movie that can be found in my family. Amongst my Persian family, I have noticed that the parents pressure their kids more to succeed, and particularly to be self-sufficient. And oftentimes, the Persian children will end up working for the family business, even if they are not forced to like Moti.

Another thing that stood out to me is that I definitely see a rigid patriarchal structure in some Persian families that I know.  I have seen many Persian families where whatever the father says, goes. And even amongst families where this is not the case, there always seems to be a sense that with age comes wisdom, and to highly respect the opinion of your parents and elders.

While this does seem to be in conflict with some modern views of family, I can see positives with the outcome of this family structure. In my experience, Persian families display more affection towards each other, and there is more of a sense that the extended family is working together as a community to succeed in life.

In the film, Yitzhak’s older brother who lives in America explains that “America is the land of opportunity.” And what I notice of my Persian family in America is that they really have taken this mindset to heart. With each generation, parents are encouraging more for their children to succeed in their own areas of passion. As a result, Persians are highly grateful for the opportunities that America has afforded them because they understand a world where for a variety of reasons, their options were limited.

My takeaway from this experience is that I feel very fortunate that I have my Persian father. He was never very harsh and demanding, and while I always respected what my father had to say, I was able to reason with him if I disagreed. While it was clear that he always had high expectations for me, he always encouraged me to find my own way. And unlike Moti, I have the full support of my parents to pursue my aspirations as an engineer.

-JD

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