Director Babak Jalali’s Sundance feature, Fremont, is a restless immigrant tale that captures a sense of longing for a home left behind, and the human search for connection. Filmed in stark black and white, and often zeroed in on the film’s focus, Donya, played by Anaita Wali Zada in her onscreen debut, Fremont is an intimate, charming, and melancholic portrayal of loneliness, and those forgotten by a country they served.
Donya is a refugee living in a small Afghan community in the Bay Area. Previously a translator for the US troops, she immigrated to America to avoid the Taliban, leaving her family and home behind. Though she has a job at a factory neatly packaging pleasantries into fortune cookies, Donya has little income, no insurance, and no family or friends. Her guilt keeps her up at night, which prompts Donya to seek prescription sleeping pills from a psychiatrist (Gregg Turkington). When the doctor insists he needs a few more sessions with her before prescribing, they begin a journey of unpacking some of Donya’s heavy burdens. Fremont also features The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White as Daniel, a mechanic and someone Donya finds a connection with.
Following Fremont’s premiere at Sundance, Jalali, Zada, and Turkington visited the Collider Studio in Park City. While talking with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Zada tells us how she went from being a journalist in Afghanistan to a leading role in a Sundance film. Jalali shares the inspiration behind Fremont’s story, explains the use of black and white, as well as the method behind how he and cinematographer, Laura Valladao, framed scenes, and how the cast and crew made Fremont possible on an indie film budget and schedule. Turkington discusses his “erratic, oddball” character, and expresses his admiration for co-star, Zada, and their instant chemistry onset.
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