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

Babak Jalali’s 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.

Jalali’s 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 “an extraordinary comedy with a calm detachment reminiscent of Kaurismäki and Jarmusch,” while Harper’s Bazaar calls it “an ode to the beauty and restless appeal of human connection.”

The film will be released by Aerofilms on September 14.

The right to a better life

Jalali’s goal was to make a story that could easily slide into a dark social drama as a sweet, light comedy.

“Showing humor in grim situations doesn’t 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 pains…” 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.

“With 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, it’s important to look at universal similarities,” the British director said.

Trailer available here.