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.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 29, 2024

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

| Oct 3, 2023

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 18, 2023

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

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 17, 2023

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

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 16, 2023

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.

| Sep 15, 2023

Fremont has the feel of a hip indie movie from the 1980s heyday of Jim Jarmusch: shot in black and white with a wry, absurdist eye.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 15, 2023

It’s the kind of independent film which we haven’t seen a lot of lately, endowed with intimacy and a kind of dreamy charm.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 14, 2023

Fremont has the demeanor of a kitchen-sink drama but is laced with deadpan absurdism.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 12, 2023

Fremont is neither game-changing nor revolutionary. It’s merely a throwback, in the best possible way, to a low-fi aesthetic and low-key way of storytelling you thought had gone the way of the Triceratops.

| Sep 1, 2023

Expressionistic interludes — shadows mingling on a stairwell wall, a globe spinning at a blurred speed — capture the uncanny nature of social interactions among the displaced and disoriented.

| Aug 31, 2023

Packaged in unsuspecting monochrome and monotone, Babak Jalali embeds Fremont with a cunning, melancholic charm.

| Aug 26, 2023

A stunning mood piece that takes pride in its stillness and slow pace, ultimately delivering a tale of intimacy, searching, and quiet strength.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 25, 2023

Jalali’s quirky Jim Jarmusch-like storytelling is a delight but requires that you fully surrender to it since the film refuses to conform to an obvious narrative trajectory.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 24, 2023

“Fremont” is content to let small moments stay small, threading them together for a compelling tapestry of shared humanity.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 23, 2023

The film has the ethereal feel of a half-remembered, mostly pleasant dream.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 20, 2023

The story is suffused with an uncommon blend of radiance and resignation, nowhere more rapturously than in the final shot.

| Aug 18, 2023

A charming little Jarmuschian number.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 6, 2023

A drama with a spare, wry tone that belies its earnest and ample substance.

| Mar 10, 2023

Jalali's droll presence, and a circumscribed daily life, far from blunting or obviating the human tragedy that she is a part of, lend it a singular poignancy...

| Mar 9, 2023