Sundance 2023: Earth Mama, Fremont | Festivals & Awards

Call it an anti-Sundance Sundance movie: Babak Jalali’s “Fremont,” which premiered in the NEXT section, has the knowing constructs of what could make for a quirky comedy. In a nutshell, it’s about a fortune cookie factory worker who goes to see a therapist so that she can get sleeping pills. And when the position opens up for someone to write the fortunes, it becomes an opportunity for her to make an anonymous connection. 

Some slightly funny things are swirling around the film’s reserved hero, Donya, but she is not laughing. The premise of “Fremont” instead unfolds as if the jokes have all been taken out, while it tells a sincere character study of an Afghan immigrant wrestling with identity and isolation. The movie is shot mostly with a static camera, creating a deep emotional stasis in this gorgeous black-and-white world crafted by cinematographer Laura Valladao. 

Anaita Wali Zada gives a fascinating performance and is in every scene. Her tempered facial expression is often the same throughout. Written by Jalali and Carolina Cavalli, “Fremont” follows her as she mostly listens to people—a quirky co-worker, a restaurant owner who watches soap operas, and her neighbors from Afghanistan. It makes for a striking experience as fundamental but illustrative as the Kuleshov effect, in which we read whatever her face is saying by the conversation it’s intercut with. Sometimes Zada’s work nudges to disappointment, fear, or irritation. Her performance is a work of the quietest passion, a perfect complement to Jalali’s film. 

There is scattered talk about Donya’s life story and how people do and don’t change; scenes that dance around what’s on her mind. When she gets the number of a therapist (Gregg Turkington’s Dr. Anthony), he coaxes out her story over a few sessions. She was a translator in Afghanistan for the Americans and has immense guilt about leaving her family behind. We don’t see any of this and don’t need to. We just get the aftermath, these therapy sessions. Much of the film takes place between the two. At one point, Dr. Anthony goes on a tangent about the symbolism in White Fang, and it’s about the largest bid this movie makes to be funny. 

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