An introduction to Fremont
Notes from an introduction to Fremont (Jalali 2023) by Terri Allen at our screening in May 2025.
Tonight we will be watching Fremont, directed by Babak Jalali. This film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023, and screened at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival. One reviewer at Sundance described the film as “delightfully and comically offbeat” with a “leisurely pace” and “endearingly dry wit”.
Donya and Anaita
The main character is Donya, an Afghan woman, and she is relatively new to the USA after being evacuated from Afghanistan. She lives in Fremont, a city in California with a large Afghan population. Donya’s story is told with stillness and empathy.
Anaita Wali Zada plays Donya. Anaita arrived in the US having fled the Taliban on an American evacuation flight in 2021. Anaita had only been in USA for 5 months when she was cast as Donya, and had never acted before. She answered a call that went out to the Afghan community looking for an actress. English is Anaita’s third language and Fremont was shot in just three weeks, so the task of leaning those lines must have been tough.
Background
The director is Babak Jalali, a British/Iranian film maker. He says, “One of the things that drew me to this story was meeting actual Afghan translators in Fremont. Their plight is quite sad. Yes, they got their visas, but once they got here, they were completely abandoned.”
Fremont is a film that explores the American dream. Donya is working, but her occupation is an ironic one. Her work, in a fortune cookie factory, alludes to possibilities. The fortune cookies don’t promise anything but allude to something other that might happen, that could be there in the near or far distance.
Fremont calmly demands our attention. It seems unassuming but I think it makes us to lean in, listen and heed all the humorous words of wisdom in its many small moments. I remembered the characters long after watching this film and look forward to meeting them again tonight.
I hope you enjoy the film.
Further reading
Fremont: Babak Jalali & Anaita Wali Zada On Their Delightful & Comically Offbeat Sundance Gem [interview] - Isaac Feldberg, The Playlist, 1 Feb 2023
Fremont Review: Unearthed by Sundance, This Minor-Key Immigrant Tale Is Sweet and Sneakily Powerful - Tomris Laffly, Variety, 2 Feb 2023
Fremont review - utterly delightful Jarmuschian drama - Wendy Ide, The Guardian, 17 Sep 2023
The Afghans of Fremont - Judith Miller, City Journal, Autumn 2010
Afghan Americans article on Wikipedia
Just Another Diamond Day on Wikipedia - Vashti Bunyan’s “Diamond Day” features on the soundtrack