Metro Detroit filmmaker tells rarely heard Iraqi American story in award-winning film ‘Pomegranate’

When filmmaker Weam Namou was 7 years old, she refused to attend a parade in support of Saddam Hussein.

As punishment, the principal of her school slapped her so hard in front of her classmates that she passed out.

“That became such a traumatic thing,” Namou recalls in an interview with Metro Times. “It was also the fear. That was the indication that Saddam was coming into power and this is how things are going to be run.”

Her family fled Iraq when she was 9 and settled in Sterling Heights, home to one of the largest Chaldean communities in the U.S. Decades later, the memory and freedom she found in America became part of the foundation for Pomegranate, an award-winning feature film she wrote and directed. It is now available on major streaming platforms and DVD.

Set during the 2016 presidential election, Pomegranate is a coming-of-age dramedy about a young Iraqi Muslim woman navigating her identity, religious expectations, and political tensions in a predominantly Christian Iraqi neighborhood in suburban Detroit. The protagonist, Niran, a liberal 20-year-old refugee, wears stylish hijabs, dreams of independence, and clashes with her conservative Chaldean neighbors, one of whom proudly displays a Trump “Make America Great Again” sign next to a Virgin Mary statue in her yard.

“We were really excited to tell an authentic story,” Namou says. “I wanted to show the beautiful, non-stereotypical story. I was tired of the stereotypical stories about our communities. They lacked our voices.”

Pomegranate is believed to be the first narrative feature film made by and about Iraqi Americans, told through the lens of a woman who shares the community’s lived experience. The project was years in the making and grew out of a personal frustration with how major studios treated her stories.

“In about 2003, I was at a writers conference in Vancouver,” Namou says. “I was talking to major producers, and they just looked at me like I was from Mars. I realized that the only way I could get the stories out is if I was the storymaker. That year I came home and enrolled in the Motion Picture Institute of Michigan. This is where it all started.”

Namou, now an author of 21 books and founder of a local arts nonprofit, used her background in writing to develop a novel version of the film as a tool for her cast.

“I wrote it as a book. The novel was made for me and the actors,” she says. “I knew in the novel I could express so deeply the setting and the characters, and I wanted the actors to feel that. They did an amazing job. This was all their first time in a feature.”

The cast includes Sam Rahmani as Niran, Zain Shami, Natally Boutrus, Lamar Babi, and others from metro Detroit’s Middle Eastern community. The film has won more than 40 international awards and was executive produced by Scott Rosenfelt, who also was behind Home Alone and Mystic Pizza.

Namou said the 2016 election season, which forms the backdrop of the film, revealed political divisions within her tight-knit community.

“It was very sad to see that people were going against each other to such an extent,” she says. “I wanted to get involved somehow, but trying to post things on social media was getting out of hand. I didn’t have that personality to fight back that way. But at the same time I wanted to do something about it.”

In writing Pomegranate, Namou says she gained a deeper understanding of opposing viewpoints and hopes the film encourages viewers to do the same.

“If we really, really listened, I started understanding the different viewpoints,” she says. “The story changed my perspective. It helped me listen to the other side.”

Namou also sees storytelling as a powerful tool for healing and change, especially for Middle Eastern communities that often carry generational trauma.

“Middle Easterners, because of religious reasons and the backgrounds where they come from, it’s oppressive so we’re still learning to tell these stories,” she says. “We are learning, and the sooner we understand the power of storytelling, the better we are at healing our wounds and assimilating into our communities.”

Chaldeans, Namou says, are uniquely positioned to tell powerful, underrepresented stories.

“We have survived thousands and thousands of years,” she says. “We still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. You don’t really get to experience that unless you come into our homes.”

She hopes Pomegranate will encourage other Middle Eastern Americans to tell their stories.

“This is the one country where every single ethnic group and community and race are able to tell their story one way or another,” she says. “I wish all the Middle Easterners who want to make a difference for their communities would use their energies to tell their stories out there.”

Namou is already working on a sequel to Pomegranate, as well as a new documentary on Chaldean storytelling.

“The timing is right,” she says. “I’m introducing the lifestyle of the Chaldeans through a more intimate way.”

Opening up through art isn’t easy, she says, but it’s something she believes is vital.

“One of the things with us as Middle Easterners is you have to be vulnerable to be artistic,” she said. “You have to show that side of yourself.”

Pomegranate can be streamed or rented on various platforms, including Plex, Amazon Video, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Google Play, and YouTube Movies. Additionally, the DVD can be purchased on Amazon.com.