This year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) will close with the UK premiere of Fremont, starring Afghan former journalist Anaita Wali Zada in her first acting role.
The off-beat comedy tells the story of Donya, a translator who flees her homeland for the US and winds up in the Californian city of Fremont, home to America’s largest Afghan community. There she finds a job writing messages in a run-down fortune cookie factory.
A hit at this year’s Sundance Festival, the film also features Gregg Turkington, Jeremy Allen White, Bettina Devin and acclaimed actor-director Boots Riley.
Praising the “mood, style and subtlety” of Fremont and “the tender care shown by director Babak Jalali towards his layered protagonist,” EIFF programme director Kate Taylor said: “It’s an honour to close this year’s festival with a film that considers the complex dynamics of diaspora experience in such a nuanced way, whilst frequently delighting with its wry wit and off-beat humour.”
Award-winning British-Iranian film-maker Mr Jalali was nominated for a BAFTA in 2006 for his short film Heydar, and screened his debut feature Frontier Blues at the EIFF in 2010. He added: “Growing up in the UK, it was easy to understand the huge cultural impact EIFF has had not just on these shores but also internationally. And the importance of making sure it continues to be here and to thrive. I’m thrilled to be returning to Edinburgh once again to show a film to an audience that I have very fond memories of, and in such a prestigious slot in the programme.”
Ms Zada’s own story mirrors that of Donya. A TV journalist in Afghanistan with three years’ experience, she was forced to leave the country in August 2021 following the collapse of the Afghan government and arrived in the US unable to speak much English.
Interviewed at Sundance about her role in the film she said: “I want to continue on be a voice of woman of Afghanistan, because all of us know what’s going on there. Women are [denied] school, education, employment, even the right to choose what to wear or have a small business. I want to be a voice [of Afghan women] and work for them. I’m going to continue that.”
Speaking about the fortune cookie factory setting, Mr Jalali added: “I really liked the aesthetics of the interior of these old fortune cookie factories. The aim of fortune cookies was to talk about possibilities and hope … A lot of times what’s written inside is complete nonsense. Sometimes, it is quite interesting what you read and what you take from reading them.”
This year’s truncated EIFF runs from August 18 to August 23 within the Edinburgh International Festival, and will open with Johnny Barrington’s Lewis-set feature debut Silent Roar.
The full EIF line-up will be announced on July 6.
READ MORE: SILENT ROAR OPENS REVITALISED FILM FESTIVAL
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