‘Fremont’ the movie is impressing critics. Where is it playing this weekend?
The independent feature film "Fremont" opens in select theaters this weekend. The fictional film follows Donya, a former interpreter for the U.S. government in Afghanistan, as she resettles in the Bay Area.
The independent feature film “Fremont” is impressing some of the nation’s top critics as the movie nears its release date this weekend, with showings scheduled throughout the Bay Area.
With scenes shot in the East Bay city that shares its name, the fictional film follows Donya (Anaita Wali Zada), a former interpreter for the U.S. government in Afghanistan, as she struggles “to connect with the culture and people of her new, unfamiliar surroundings while processing complicated feelings about her past,” according to the film’s distributor, Music Box Films.
“It’s essentially a film partly about the immigrant experience, but also just generally, that at the end of the day, everyone is looking for love, everyone is looking to be happy, everyone is looking for a decent cup of coffee,” said Rachael Fung, a producer with Fremont the Movie, in an interview with this newspaper last year.
The film — directed by Babak Jalali — held a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score as of Tuesday.
“The movie, photographed by Laura Valladao, is in black-and-white; add the deadpan dialogue and you may be reminded of, say, early Jim Jarmusch,” wrote Anthony Lane for The New Yorker. “But there’s not a smack of hipness here, and Jalali is not on a quest for cool. Rather, the story is suffused with an uncommon blend of radiance and resignation, nowhere more rapturously than in the final shot.”
Tomris Laffly, for Variety, wrote, “You go in reluctant and even skeptical, and come out wondering how and why you’re moved to tears.”
“Fremont” collected accolades on the festival circuit, and the film opens in select theaters Aug. 25. Bay Area showings are scheduled this weekend at Cine Lounge Fremont 7; Roxie Theater in San Francisco; and Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. The film plays Aug. 28 at The Chabot in Castro Valley, and then Sept. 1 at Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley.
Filmmaker Jalali is scheduled to appear and take questions at certain showings.
Scenes were shot in and around Fremont, including the Mission Peak Lodge hotel in Mission San Jose, and Dino’s Family Restaurant in Centerville, near the part of town known as “Little Kabul,” according to previous reporting in this newspaper.
Afghans have resettled in Fremont following both the Soviet invasion of their country in 1979 and more recent Taliban return to power, according to the city. In August 2021, when the U.S. withdrew its remaining troops from Afghanistan, the city launched the Afghan Refugee Help Fund to “support the 9,880 Afghan refugees coming to California and the 76,000 Afghans fleeing to the United States as a whole,” according to a fund report.
The fund raised more than $480,000 to cover the costs of filing immigration documents, providing cellphones to newcomers and assisting with temporary housing, according to the report.
Former staff writer Joseph Geha contributed to this report.