While Fremont, California may mostly be known as a residential area for tech employees and the location of Tesla’s first car manufacturing factory, a small section of the city, known as “Little Kabul,” is the home of the largest community of Afghan immigrants in the United States. Fremont follows Donya (Anaita Wali Zada), an Afghan refugee who moved to the city eight months ago after working as a translator for the U.S. Army. She travels to San Francisco for her job as a wrapper in a fortune cookie factory and later as a writer of the short messages found inside the wafer. When asked why she makes the long journey to work every day, she explains herself with the joke: “I thought it would be lovely to see Chinese people sometimes.”
This is how director Babak Jalali and co-writer Carolina Cavalli structure their film. Many of the characters are immigrants seeking some sort of resolution that they fear may never come. Beneath their deadpan jokes and poetic ways of conversing lies a level of discomfort and sadness. They feel haunted by their pasts and find themselves constantly searching for a sense of belonging in a country populated by lost souls. While Wali Zada plays Donya with reserve, often with a stoic face, her worries keep her awake at night. She goes to see a therapist (Gregg Turkington) for sleeping pills, partly in an attempt to reassure herself that her inability to fall asleep is her only problem. The film is careful to not reveal Donya’s entire backstory through her therapy sessions while simultaneously getting us to understand that she tries to dismiss her struggles in order to avoid acknowledging her guilt over leaving her family and home behind.
We also learn more about Donya through her daily interactions with a cast of eccentric characters. There’s her work friend, Joanna (Hilda Schmelling), who talks about her various blind dates and moves Donya to tears as she sings karaoke of Vashti Bunyan’s “Diamond Day.” There’s also her boss at the fortune cookie factory (Eddie Tang) who believes his advice is wiser than it perhaps really is. After work, she’s the only customer eating dinner at a restaurant whose one employee spends his time avidly following a melodramatic soap opera. But perhaps most moving is her relationship with her neighbor, Salim. In a moment of vulnerability, she asks him about her uncertainty weighing her deep remorse with a desire for connection. He comforts her, saying, “As long as your heart bears the burden of suffering and as long as you don’t forget the past… falling in love is your right.”
Through her conversations, we see Donya’s kindness and empathy rise to the surface. Wali Zada’s subtle shifts in facial expression hint at her character’s true feelings and effortlessly win us over to her side. This is essential, as in the third act, we follow Donya as she meets a lonely mechanic (Jeremy Allen White), who encourages a lighter tenderness out of her over a cup of coffee. Fremont’s closing moments are tremendous, reminding us to embrace life’s surprises and experience them with open hearts. The film doesn’t offer a solution to all of Donya’s difficulties, but it reveals a significant amount of hope for the character.
Like the fortune cookie messages that Donya writes, Jalali and Cavalli’s story is small in scope. But this doesn’t surrender the film’s intimacy and overarching suggestions of regret, aspiration and peace of mind. Although Fremont may be a familiar tale, it is executed effectively and sparks the imagination. Ultimately, the film remains true to life throughout its runtime – a rare and appreciated quality that makes it one of the year’s most heartwarming films.
Photo courtesy of Music Box Films
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