Fremont

Fremont starts with a sense of sadness, ­repressed memories and dislocation but grows into something hopeful. It's about how we can make connections in unexpected ways.

This is an excellent little film... [Fremont] speaks to shades of old Jim Jarmusch.

The script (co-written by Jalali) is especially sharp when it comes to examining the ways that refugees get pigeon-holed as saints or sinners.

A wry, Jarmuschian musing on the human connections and possibilities that spark in the most unexpected places.

This is a sweet, low-key charmer with a winning, achingly sympathetic performance from novice actress Zada at its centre.

Wali Zada’s gaze is a form of language, too, and by the end of Fremont, it’s her emotional fluency that we all understand.

"Fremont is a darkly comedic and reliably heartfelt meditation on immigrant culture in all its overwhelming ubiquity."

It’s rare to see a movie that is so clear-eyed in its politics and psychology also be so open, lovely and graceful.

Delicately paced and gorgeously shot in black and white, this melancholy film benefits from a deadpan humour, which adds an idiosyncratic flavour to its sensitive study in displacement and yearning.

Fremont ultimately asserts that life is messy, random, and bound to hurt, but it also reminds us that we gain nothing from standing by and letting it pass.