FREMONT (2023) is an odd, dry little indie film I came across. I guess if forced I’d have to classify it as a drama, just so nobody gets mad at me for it not being a laugh riot. But it’s not really heavy, kind of a strange undertone of sad and funny, which is why I liked it.
Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) is an Afghan refugee in Fremont, California. She lives in the same building as some other Afghans, including one (Timur Nusratty) who won’t even acknowledge her. She says it’s because she “worked with the enemy” by being a translator for the U.S. Army. She did that for a visa, for a chance to get the fuck out of there, to get anywhere else. Not necessarily here.
She commutes to San Francisco to work at a small fortune cookie factory. “I thought it would be lovely to see Chinese people sometimes,” she explains. The process of how the cookies are made is also a pretty lovely thing to see in a movie.
She’s very quiet and lonely. She can’t sleep at night, wants to get sleeping pills but hasn’t been able to get an appointment with a psychiatrist who could prescribe them. Her neighbor Salim (Siddique Ahmed) gives her his appointment card and tells her to take his slot. Dr. Anthony (Gregg Turkington, CHRISTMAS EVE IN MILLER’S POINT) and his secretary both say that’s not how it works, but she goes into his office and refuses to leave. Kinda like the U.S.in Afghanistan.
He eventually gives in and tries to talk to her in earnest, but she won’t say much about herself. When she mentions people calling her a traitor he asks if she thinks she is one.
“I don’t spend much time thinking.”
“Why?”
“Too busy with my social life.”
Cut to her outside smoking, alone.
Dr. Anthony is a funny character – he definitely doesn’t seem like a great psychiatrist, but he does seem like he’s trying, and like he might be getting somewhere. But then he starts reading White Fang to her and it makes him cry and then he’s too busy being embarrassed about that to notice he might’ve had a breakthrough with her.
Her boss Ricky (Eddie Tang) really likes her and gets her to start writing the fortunes. He’s pretty socially awkward but very positive and nice and stands up for her when his wife Fan (Avis See-tho) wants to fire her. For putting her phone number in a fortune.
Ricky notes that China and Afghanistan share a border. “I think people who share borders share many similarities. Us, we share border, we have similarities.” I thought that was kind of cool to talk about a border as a connection instead of a separation.
Zada is a striking and enigmatic screen presence. Without saying much she expresses very relatable feelings of isolation. Life put her here, she’s not sure what to do about it, but doesn’t pity herself either. Most of us don’t know anything like her extraordinary experiences, but hell yes we know her mundane ones. I guess that’s the border we share.
Part of what got me to rent this was a quote comparing it to Jim Jarmusch. It’s not close enough to even guess if he was an inspiration for director Babak Jalali (FRONTIER BLUES, RADIO DREAMS, LAND) and his co-writer Carolina Cavalli (THE KIDNAPPING OF ARABELLA), but I can see the tonal overlap. And it’s Academy ratio black and white, a beautiful way to present both its comically sedate compositions and the more lively ones when she steps out into the world. (Cinematographer: Laura Valladao.)
It’s a quiet movie that lingers on things like pouring and drinking a glass of water, picking apart a grilled cheese sandwich, many quiet conversations at night when she can’t sleep and sees Salim smoking outside, Dr.Anthony taking way too long to open the plastic bag on his fortune cookie, and then to brush the crumbs from it off his desk. It’s a world of empty diners, long pauses and unspoken thoughts, lightly scored by a composer named Mahmood Schricker, with bluesy baritone horn and what I’ve read is Persian setar. Mostly it’s quiet, though. When she plays a joyful song on her car radio in the third act it seems momentous.
Donya’s American friends keep suggesting she needs to find love. Oh yeah, good idea, just go fall in love with somebody. No problem. Her co-worker Joanna (Hilda Schmelling) calls her late at night to give her advice from The Laws of Attraction.
It finally becomes clear in one of Donya’s late night talks with Salim that love is on her mind, but she feels guilty about it. “Do you think it’s normal to think about love when there are people still in Kabul risking their lives?”
After some thought he says, “As long as your heart bears the burden of suffering, and as long as you don’t forget the past, and you don’t become an asshole, falling in love is your right.”
So it’s very sweet when she gets dressed up to go on a date, even if it doesn’t go how she wants it to at all. There are a few scenes with a great actor from a great TV show, it’s no secret but I’m not going to name him just because I think it would be better without anticipation. (You can check the tags if you want to know.) The payoff is a small encounter between lonely people who know how to long more than they know how to connect. But they do a little of both. It’s a slow burn to a brief spark that feels bright by contrast. Sometimes that works as well as a lit fuse and a big explosion.
