Fremont (2023)
Director: Babak Jalali
Screenwriters: Babak Jalali, Carolina Cavalli
Starring: Anaita Wali Zada, Gregg Turkington, Jeremy Allen White
The closing night selection at the 76th Edinburgh International Film Festival, Fremont, arrives at a moment of transition for Edinburgh’s cinema scene. After the recent closure of the beloved Edinburgh Filmhouse and the festival’s own uncertain future, this year’s programme felt less like a routine showcase and more like a conscious statement: an attempt to articulate what film culture in the city might become. In that context, Fremont reads as both a modest, carefully observed character study and an emblematic piece of that conversation—an intimate film that resonates with questions of displacement, reinvention and quiet resilience.
Babak Jalali’s film follows Donya, played by newcomer Anaita Wali Zada, an Afghan woman who once worked as a translator for U.S. forces and now lives in Fremont, California. Her daily life has settled into solitude and small routines until she takes a job in a fortune cookie factory, writing brief fortunes that will be shuffled into countless meals. The plot is deliberately minimal: rather than mapping a conventional arc of obstacles and resolutions, the film invites viewers to inhabit Donya’s world and to observe how small interactions accumulate into meaning.
Shot in black and white and framed in a 4:3 aspect ratio, Fremont looks like an art film at first glance, yet its temperament leans toward dark comedy and humane observation. The formal choices—monochrome imagery, tight framing and a measured pace—underscore a feeling of isolation while also foregrounding gestures, expressions and silences. Jalali’s decision to cast several first-time performers gives many scenes an unpolished realism that can feel deliberate: expressions register in a compact, often blunt way, producing moments that are alternately funny, awkward and quietly heartbreaking. This slightly austere acting style becomes an instrument for the director’s aims, allowing the camera to linger on small, telling details and on Donya’s flat, yet expressive, gazes.
Because the film resists a traditional narrative structure, some viewers may find it slow or diffuse. It is less about a clear beginning-to-end transformation and more about accumulation—how daily routines, chance encounters and modest acts of connection gradually reshape a life. Instead of signposting dramatic turning points, the film trusts the audience to piece together emotional shifts from posture, timing and the lyrical stillness of many scenes. In that way, Fremont asks for patience and close attention; rewarded viewers will discover a quietly layered portrait of loneliness and tentative hope.
Anaita Wali Zada’s central performance anchors the film. From her first frame she registers a presence that is restrained yet magnetic: restrained in delivery but wide in implication. Her work toggles between deadpan humor and tender vulnerability, and it’s her stillness and timing that make many scenes land. Zada’s chemistry with the supporting cast animates the film; even when exchanges are short or awkward, they add texture to her character and help construct an emotional world that feels credible and lived-in.
Veteran performers Gregg Turkington and Jeremy Allen White supply memorable supporting turns. Turkington plays Donya’s dry, idiosyncratic therapist—someone whose attempts to understand Donya through the whimsical lens of fortune-cookie aphorisms generate some of the film’s funniest and most oddly poignant moments. Jeremy Allen White portrays a lonely mechanic Donya meets under mundane circumstances on her way to a blind date; his performance is quietly luminous, embodying a blend of yearning and restrained optimism that helps tie the film’s emotional register together. Their work complements Zada’s performance and elevates scenes that might otherwise remain elliptical.
Thematically, Fremont echoes broader concerns about rebuilding and continuity. Just as the Edinburgh festival has confronted closure and the challenge of renewal, the film centers a character who is reconstructing a life after rupture. The aesthetic nod to cinema’s roots—black-and-white photography and a boxier 4:3 frame—feels intentional, a way of honoring film history while exploring contemporary forms of representation. Jalali’s film both reveres tradition and experiments with form, blending non-traditional storytelling with intimate characterization.
While its style and pacing will not suit all tastes, there is an understated charm to Fremont that lingers. The film’s humor is dry and its emotional beats are subtle, yet the overall effect is warm and bittersweet. It’s a film of small gestures and human connection: an elegy for what is lost and a modest celebration of the ways people quietly remake themselves in unfamiliar places.
Score: 18/24
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Recommended reading: More coverage from EIFF (Edinburgh International Film Festival)