Director: Babak Jalali
Fremont follows Donya, a former U.S. Army interpreter from Afghanistan, as she tries to build an ordinary life amid the fortune-cookie factories and strip malls of California's Bay Area.
What is Fremont about?
Relocated to Fremont, California after years translating for American forces in Kabul, Donya spends her days writing tiny fortunes for a cookie factory and her nights wrestling with insomnia. Guilt over the people she left behind follows her everywhere, even into therapy sessions with an analyst more interested in Jack London than in clinical technique. Director Babak Jalali shoots her quiet search for connection, and eventually love, in stark black and white, finding dry humor in the space between displacement and daily routine.
Cast & crew
Anaita Wali Zada, herself a former journalist who fled Afghanistan, makes her acting debut as Donya, playing the role with a flat, watchful stillness that carries the film. Jeremy Allen White appears later as a mechanic who becomes an unlikely romantic interest, while Gregg Turkington plays Donya's oddball therapist. The supporting cast, including Siddique Ahmed and Hilda Schmelling, rounds out a small community of fellow refugees and coworkers around her.
Context & significance
Fremont, California is home to one of the largest Afghan diaspora communities in the United States, and the film uses that real backdrop to ground its story. Writer-director Babak Jalali, working with cinematographer Laura Valladao, favors static, boxy compositions reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch, giving the comedy a deadpan, observational rhythm rather than broad jokes. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023 before a limited theatrical run.
Where & how to watch
Fremont is available to stream on K-Time with a free account login, with a Persian-dubbed track and Persian subtitles for viewers who prefer to watch in Farsi. No separate purchase or download is required beyond signing in, and the interface itself is fully translated for Persian-speaking audiences.