In “Fremont,” Iranian-born director Babak Jalali has another East Bay-set indie movie earning rave reviews.
“Fremont” filmmaker Babak Jalali admits he knew nothing about the titular East Bay city until he traveled to Berkeley in 2016 while making another acclaimed indie movie “Radio Dreams.”
What originally piqued Jalai’s interest in Fremont was how it’s home to the biggest Afghan population in the nation, a designation that paired well with “Radio Dreams,” which involves a Bay Area Farsi-langue radio station and an Afghan rock band’s connection with the influential Bay Area metal band Metallica.
To tell their story, Jalali and Cavalli decided to raise the voice of someone not commonly heard from in news reports — female interpreters. The film includes a variety of Bay Area locales. Niles subbed in for Donya’s road trip to Fresno, which included an important stop off at a mechanics shop, Dino’s Family Restaurant providing the backdrop for conversation and Oakland Fortune Factory in that city’s Chinatown served as the place where Donya worked. And, yes, the apartment building where Donya lives does exist in Fremont.
As for his lead, Jalali searched for a professional Afghan actress from North America to portray Donya but when that didn’t work he held an open casting call on social media and Afghan community centers. When he talked via Zoom to Zada — who had never acted before — he knew he had found the lead. Zada not only impressed him but her background of having resettled in Maryland after fleeing Afghanistan on an evacuation flight when the Taliban moved in, resonated.
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