Fremont, a Tender Comedy About a Girl From the Fortune Cookie Factory, Opens in Theaters
Prague Morning

Babak Jalaliโs American film Fremont wowed audiences at the Sundance Film Festival and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it took home the Crystal Globe for Best Director.
The tender comedy follows the life of a young girl, Dunia, who works in a fortune cookie factory and decides to chase her own luck by hiding a daring message in one of the cookies.
The main role of the quirky Dunia is played by debutant actress Anaita Wali Zada, alongside Jeremy Allen White, known to viewers from the popular kitchen nightmare series The Bear.
Jalaliโs distinctive humour and charming atmosphere have earned the film rave reviews, which are not afraid to compare the British director with Iranian roots to the big names of world cinema.
Artforum magazine describes the film as โan extraordinary comedy with a calm detachment reminiscent of Kaurismรคki and Jarmusch,โ while Harperโs Bazaar calls it โan ode to the beauty and restless appeal of human connection.โ
The film will be released by Aerofilms on September 14.
The right to a better life
Jalaliโs goal was to make a story that could easily slide into a dark social drama as a sweet, light comedy.
โShowing humor in grim situations doesnโt diminish the seriousness or depth of the story. It can make it more real and add layers to it. He who cries has only one pain. But he who laughs has a thousand and one painsโฆโ explains his creative decision. While his heroine is a girl originally from Afghanistan looking for a new home in California, his subject matter is deeply universal.
โWith this film, I wanted to look beyond the premise that there are wild differences between people. In a world where the idea of difference and the exaggeration of otherness has a lot of power, itโs important to look at universal similarities,โ the British director said.
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