What sets “Fremont” apart from what otherwise might have played like a stereotypical Sundance entry is the specifics of its environment and protagonist. Helmed by Babak Jalali, the picture offers a small-scale yarn about a young former Afghani translator who ends up living in California and working in a run-down fortune cookie factory.
Jalali, alongside cast members Anaita Wali Zada and Gregg Turkington, stopped by TheWrap’s Portrait and Video Studio at The Music Lodge to discuss the film with TheWrap’s Steve Pond.
Jalali first explained that Fremont, a city he had never heard about until shooting an unrelated short in 2014, holds the biggest Afghan community in the United States.