Winsome. Too kooky by half. I thought I had Babak Jalali’s indie dramedy pegged. Yet, midway through the Iranian-British director’s fourth feature, things take a turn for the wondrous. The tale of a displaced and love-hungry Afghan, Fremont isn’t quite as churning as Celine Song’s rightly-raved-about Past Lives. Were audiences to be connected to a weep-o-meter, however, it would score highly (because it triggers tears of joy). I’m jealous of anyone seeing it for the first time.
Donya (Anaita Wali Zada), who once translated for the US military in Kabul, is an insomniac with zero tolerance for surly men (she’s not keen on cockroaches, either). Though living in the Bay Area city of Fremont, she works in a family-run, San Francisco factory and, after a hasty promotion, finds herself dreaming up the platitudinous “fortunes” that come in Chinese restaurant cookies.
