Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for “Fremont,” a beautiful and poignant story of an Afghanistan immigrant, stuck between two cultures in America … co-written and directed by Babak Jalali. In select theaters on September 8th, see local listings.
Rating: 5.0/5.0
Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) is an ex-translator for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, who just managed to get out of the war-torn country on a special visa and has found work in Fremont, California, with a family-run fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. Around the same time she is promoted to write the fortunes for the cookies, she begins to see a therapist (Gregg Turkington) who connects in a profound way to her case, and she begins to open up to new possibilities, including an encounter with a lonely auto mechanic on September 8th. See local listings for other locations. Featuring Anaita Wali Zada, Gregg Tarkington, Hilda Schmelling,...
Rating: 5.0/5.0
Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) is an ex-translator for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, who just managed to get out of the war-torn country on a special visa and has found work in Fremont, California, with a family-run fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. Around the same time she is promoted to write the fortunes for the cookies, she begins to see a therapist (Gregg Turkington) who connects in a profound way to her case, and she begins to open up to new possibilities, including an encounter with a lonely auto mechanic on September 8th. See local listings for other locations. Featuring Anaita Wali Zada, Gregg Tarkington, Hilda Schmelling,...
- 9/8/2023
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
A long time ago, in what might as well have been a galaxy far, far away, Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) was a translator for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Now, this young woman lives in the Bay Area town of Fremont, a stone’s throw from Silicon Valley and a dozen or so Bart stops from San Francisco. Every day, she commutes from an apartment complex populated by Afghan immigrants into the City by the Bay, where she works in a fortune-cookie factory in Chinatown. Every evening, she returns home...
- 9/1/2023
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
To characters in Babak Jalali’s Fremont, memories both serve an artistic purpose and function as nuisance to be dealt with. Unresolved experiences while serving as a translator to the U.S. Army in Afghanistan prevent refugee Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) from sleeping soundly in her new home of Fremont, California. She seeks sleeping pills from oddball psychiatrist Dr. Anthony (Gregg Turkington) who spends their sessions largely promoting the virtues of his favorite immigrant story: Jack London’s White Fang.
Later when fortune cookie factory owner Ricky (Eddie Tang) offers Donya a promotion from packaging the cookies to writing the messages that go inside, he leans on his instinct that her past pain will lend her a rich worldview from which to draw from as a writer. These plot machinations are rarely front and center in Fremont, and Donya’s seemingly-troubled past isn’t something she freely discusses with those around her.
Later when fortune cookie factory owner Ricky (Eddie Tang) offers Donya a promotion from packaging the cookies to writing the messages that go inside, he leans on his instinct that her past pain will lend her a rich worldview from which to draw from as a writer. These plot machinations are rarely front and center in Fremont, and Donya’s seemingly-troubled past isn’t something she freely discusses with those around her.
- 8/31/2023
- by Caleb Hammond
- The Film Stage
There’s a loose template to many films that find a platform at Sundance and frequently disappear into the ether thereafter — the small-scale, muted mood piece that ambles along until something significant finally happens in the last half-hour or so. Your enjoyment of the quietly humorous character study Fremont will depend on your patience for that model. Still, there’s much to appreciate in the seldom explored Afghan immigrant milieu and the droll decision of director Babak Jalali and co-writer Carolina Cavalli to plonk their young protagonist down in a family-run Chinese fortune cookie factory.
London-based Iranian filmmaker Jalali casts Anaita Wali Zada — a former national television presenter forced to flee the Taliban after the fall of Kabul — as Donya, who worked as a translator at U.S. Army bases. That “traitorous” background earns her the hostility of a neighbor living in the same housing complex populated by Afghan refugees in...
London-based Iranian filmmaker Jalali casts Anaita Wali Zada — a former national television presenter forced to flee the Taliban after the fall of Kabul — as Donya, who worked as a translator at U.S. Army bases. That “traitorous” background earns her the hostility of a neighbor living in the same housing complex populated by Afghan refugees in...
- 1/20/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
No big revelations this year at the 38th Hong Kong Film Awards. The Sunday night ceremony has unveiled all the winners for this years Awards and they are all quite an easy guess. Felix Chong’s thriller “Project Gutenberg” was the star of the evening as, predictably – considering its 17 nominations – won Best Film along with other 6 Awards.
But despite the histrionic performances of Chow Yun-fat and Aaron Kwock, the acting Awards are not in the “Project Gutenberg”‘s pile. Anthony Wong took home the Best Actor award for his role as a middle-aged paralysed man in “Still Human“, and newcomer Chloe Maayan won Best Actress for Fruit Chan’s “Three Husbands”, while Kara Hui and Ben Yuen Foo-Wa scored Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor both for “Tracey“.
Finally, “Dying To Survive” won the Best Film from Mainland and Taiwan Award.
Here is the full list of Winners and...
But despite the histrionic performances of Chow Yun-fat and Aaron Kwock, the acting Awards are not in the “Project Gutenberg”‘s pile. Anthony Wong took home the Best Actor award for his role as a middle-aged paralysed man in “Still Human“, and newcomer Chloe Maayan won Best Actress for Fruit Chan’s “Three Husbands”, while Kara Hui and Ben Yuen Foo-Wa scored Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor both for “Tracey“.
Finally, “Dying To Survive” won the Best Film from Mainland and Taiwan Award.
Here is the full list of Winners and...
- 4/15/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
The full list of nominations for the the 38th Hong Kong Film Awards has been revealed. On the 14 April 2019 we will know the winners but for now let’s have a look at the nominees.
Two films seem to lead the competition. Big budget “Project Gutenberg” by Felix Chong has the highest number of nominations (17) and both its protagonists, Chow Yun-Fat and Aaron Kwok, compete for the Best Actor Award. To follow, a much smaller (but not less loved) film, “Men On The Dragon” by Sunny Chan has 10 nominations.
Here is the full list:
Men On The Dragon
Best Film
Three Husbands
Operation Red Sea
Still Human
Men On The Dragon
Project Gutenberg
Best Director
Fruit Chan (Three Husbands)
Dante Lam (Operation Red Sea)
Sunny Chan (Men On The Dragon)
Oliver Chan Siu-Kuen (Still Human)
Felix Chong (Project Gutenberg)
Aaron Kwok and Chow Yun-Fat
Best Actor
Francis Ng (Men On...
Two films seem to lead the competition. Big budget “Project Gutenberg” by Felix Chong has the highest number of nominations (17) and both its protagonists, Chow Yun-Fat and Aaron Kwok, compete for the Best Actor Award. To follow, a much smaller (but not less loved) film, “Men On The Dragon” by Sunny Chan has 10 nominations.
Here is the full list:
Men On The Dragon
Best Film
Three Husbands
Operation Red Sea
Still Human
Men On The Dragon
Project Gutenberg
Best Director
Fruit Chan (Three Husbands)
Dante Lam (Operation Red Sea)
Sunny Chan (Men On The Dragon)
Oliver Chan Siu-Kuen (Still Human)
Felix Chong (Project Gutenberg)
Aaron Kwok and Chow Yun-Fat
Best Actor
Francis Ng (Men On...
- 2/13/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
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