Ja Oftadan (Settle In)

Ja Oftadan is a love letter to my maman and baba This book and short film project began with a suitcase full of spices, the ones I brought with me when I left Iran for the U.S. In the cold of North Dakota, they carried warmth. Each bag was labeled in my maman’s handwriting, with tiny doodles and tender instructions, as if she were whispering, “You’re not alone.” I couldn’t throw them away. They smelled like home. The first time we saw each other again, after more than three years, she came and made every dish vegan, just for me. The same recipes she’d taught me over the phone, her voice crackling across the ocean, guiding me through onions and turmeric. That voice became the narration for my short film, her stories of food, love, and longing holding the heart of the work. Ja Oftadan is made of two handmade books, a film, and the traces of her care: spices, recipes, rug-lined suitcases, and her voice. The main book opens like luggage velvet-wrapped and pocketed with scent. The smaller one holds photographs of the meals maman made, styled inside an open suitcase, always halfway between here and there. This is my archive of my parents love. A meditation on migration, memory, and the way parents can wrap their child in care, even from a continent away.