Volume 121: Fremont
The Voice of Energy Vol. 121
Good day, friends and loved ones. I trust the day finds you well. I'm sitting here, enjoying the smell of brown rice cooking in the nearby kitchen and happy that the rain has let up here for a while.
Today I come to you with a single review of a lovely film newly released on home video. Enjoy.
Fremont (2023, dir. Babak Jalali)
British / Iranian director Babak Jalali's filmography has, so far, been a pendulum swing between tackling big subjects and homing in on smaller, slightly quirkier stories. He followed up 2009's Frontier Blues, his feature debut that was a moody glimpse into the lives of Iranians living in the desolate region bordering Turkmenistan, with Radio Dreams, a Kaurismäki-like story about a writer trying to connect an Afghan rock band with Metallica.
Now, five years after the release of Land, a bleak but powerful visit to a Native reserve mourning the death of one of their members in Afghanistan, Jalali returns with a far more composed, sedate work.
Named for the East Bay neighborhood that is home to the country's largest population of Afghan-Americans, Fremont centers on the quiet day-to-day of Donya (Anaita Wali Zada), a young woman born in Kabul who left Afghanistan after serving as a translator for the U.S. Army. In her adopted home, she works in a fortune cookie factory and spends her evenings watching soap operas in an Afghan restaurant or, unable to sleep, staring at the ceiling. The ground beneath her feet starts to shift slightly once she starts seeing a therapist (Gregg Turkington) to treat both her insomnia and her unresolved issues of guilt about leaving her family behind and is given a promotion to start writing the fortunes that go in each cookie.
In less confident hands, this plotline would be a recipe for showy emotional breakdowns or Donya changing the world through her poetic fortunes. Jalali, instead, takes his tonal cues from filmmakers like Hal Hartley and, with its black and white cinematography and unhurried takes, Jim Jarmusch. Fremont moves at the pace of real life. Donya doesn't have a huge breakthrough moment so much as she grows steadily into embracing her independence and the possibilities of her new life in the States.
Underpinning the story are some pointed details about the plight of working class Americans. The only reason Donya is able to get the promotion at her job is because the previous fortune writer, an elderly Chinese woman, dies at her desk. Her co-worker is seen sharing a bed with her mother. And when the coffee machine breaks down at the factory, Donya's manager offers her a cup from her machine... for twice the price.
Jalali doesn't linger on these moments or present them in chest-beating fashion. They are simply the reality for so many folks living below the margins in our desperately unequal country. While the film ends on a hopeful note, Jalali trusts us to know that this hardly means a happily ever after for Donya. The future is uncertain but it's coming whether we like it or not.
Fremont is available to rent on VOD services and on DVD / Blu-ray
Seems folks are interested in seeing my list of my favorite films of 2023. I'm going to hold off on sharing it until the first newsletter of 2024 however as there are still some films from this year that I want to catch up with. Cool? Cool.
In other news you might be able to use... did you know I was on staff over at Paste for the last year or so? Will it make a difference to you to know that I'm leaving that post at the end of this month? Maybe. Maybe not. This isn't because I got some big new gig or anything. My time and energy is stretched very thin and I need to re-prioritize. It's going to suck, financially-speaking, but it will be better in the long run. And yes, I realize how privileged I am to be able to make that decision.
Back again next week with a few more reviews. Thanks, as always, for reading.
Artwork for this edition is from a retrospective of the work of Anna Oppermann that is on display at Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, Germany through April 1, 2024.
This newsletter was written on the unceded land where once stood the traditional village sites of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other tribes who made their homes along the Columbia River creating communities and summer encampments to harvest and use the plentiful natural resources of the area.