Expat Cinema: Fremont

Expat Cinema: Fremont

Babak Jalali - VS - 2024 - 91 minuten - taal: English, Dari - ondertiteling: English

Focus Expat Cinema: every Wednesday at 19:00 foreign language films with English subtitles.

Donya works for a Chinese fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. Formerly a translator for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, she struggles to put her life in the U.S. back in order. In a moment of sudden revelation, she decides to send out a special message in a cookie. Starring newcomer Anaita Wali Zada and Jeremy Allen White (The Bear, The Iron Claw).

In the past, Donya worked as an interpreter for the US army in Afghanistan. When the army left there, Donya went with them, leaving behind everyone she loved. Now she lives in Fremont, California, where she has a job in a small factory making fortune cookies. At night she lies brooding; she does want a different, happier life, but guilt gets in the way. She even seeks help from a psychiatrist. Things change when the person who writes the happiness aphorisms dies – from now on, Donya gets to write them and she does so in her own unique way. It is her way of sending her message into the world.

This film, of Iranian-British director Babak Jalali has been compared to that of Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismäki. And indeed, there are common stylistic traits: deadpan humour and minimal acting. The debutant Anaita Wali Zada, who plays Donya, fits right into this picture: she performs her role dryly and understatedly. Shot in beautiful black-and-white on a 4:3 screen format.

Expat Cinema: Fremont - Focus Filmtheater Arnhem