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Attended this screening at Gothenburg Film Festival and did go in with very low expectations but was completely blown away! The plot, the acting, the comedic timing and tone, it's a true masterpiece! The ensemble has chemistry and Anaita is an incredible newcomer so hope to see more of her in the future. The script is pure and essential in it's true meaning, no pointless filler scenes at all. My favourite scene is when the fortune cookie factory owner shows Donya the world globe, spinning it and talk about their immigrant backgrounds and what borders means to humans. That is incredible writing alongside visually stunning.

Just a castaway, an island lost at sea. Another lonely day with no one here but me. More loneliness than any Afghani woman (or any woman for that matter) could bear. Rescue me before I fall into despair. Life's been tough since emigrating to the States, where making fortune cookies for a living somewhat grates, then a chance to type a line, that may result in an entwine, and open up a future that just might lead to a dance. A wonderful performance from Anaita Wali Zada leaves the viewer under no illusion of what Donya is looking for after leaving Afghanistan having been an English translator during the occupation.

So what's with the subtitles? There when they speak English and missing when speaking Arabic or whatever? Is that supposed to be cute/innovative? Or to demonstrate that what they are talking about is irrelevant? Almost as bad is the never-ending discussion with the psychoanalyst who feels that White Fang, a story about a wolf dog, is the most important book he has ever read (did he even go to college?) and a book all his patients should read because the theme applies to them all. The irony about the uselessness of therapy is mostly tiring and labored. As for the performance of the lead actress, yes deadpan looks and emotionless responses, are all the rage these days, but it's not enough to overcome the listless and hahaha script.

Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) is an Afghan who translated for the US military. She is now alone in California working in a Chinese fortune cookie factory. She is struggling with untreated PTSD. She gets a small promotion to writing the fortunes for the cookies. This is a small black and white indie. I like the quietness of Donya which accentuates her inner turmoil. I expected more Jeremy Allen White. This film does need more romancing to bring her out of her shell. I actually thought the special fortune cookie was supposed to get him to call her. That would be a better story. I don't understand the deer part. I doubt that the fortunes are written one at a time. Still, it is an interesting little indie.

Emotionally powerful, fondly told story with many layers of interest and meaning. The "less is more" approach heightens our curiosity about the characters and what they are feeling under the surface of their interactions. Rather than being confused as to their motivations, we can clearly see that these are good and unselfish people, wanting to lead good and decent lives and make meaningful connections with each other without the pretense and personal branding/image crafting that is the prevalent, current mode of human interaction. A story of loneliness and also how to avoid it, if we keep our hearts open and are not ashamed and wary of our own vulnerabilities. The camera work and blocking of each scene is masterfully and tightly arranged and composed, yet consistently seems effortless. Go where this film takes you, and you will be rewarded. A serene and beautiful film. A complete joy to watch. A moving piece of artful cinema.

source: Fremont

Life can be so confusing at times that we really don't know where we stand with it, other than having a clear sense that what we're experiencing isn't working and that we desperately need direction to help fix it. But who are we to turn to if we have few friends and no family for meaningful, helpful guidance? Peers? Co-workers? A psychiatrist? Such is the fate of Donya (Anita Wali Zada), an Afghan transplant living in Fremont, CA, a distant suburb of San Francisco and home to a large population of her country's fellow immigrants. Having worked as a translator for the US Army while in Afghanistan, she qualified for a special exit visa program that brought her to safety in America when the US pulled out of the war-torn nation. She now holds what appears to be a reasonably well-paying, decidedly whimsical job as a writer of messages for Chinese fortune cookies, but, beyond that, she doesn't have much of a life. She often questions (ironically speaking) the good "fortune" from which she's benefitted compared to many of her countrymen back home, frequently experiencing difficulty accepting it and consequently suffering from loneliness and severe insomnia. But what's causing these feelings: Guilt? Isolation? An inability to fit in (or even knowing how to go about doing so)? Or is it some of all of the above? Writer-director Babak Jalali's latest wrestles with these issues from the perspectives of both an isolated immigrant and of a lost twenty-something merely trying to find her way in the world. And, to its credit, the film comes up with some truly brilliant insights in these regards. Unfortunately, there aren't enough of them to make this an enlightening, finely crafted character study. Much of it meanders (especially in the second half), looking for direction through a series of inconsequentially mundane events and a failure to more fully flesh out the insights that it otherwise successfully manages to nail. The film is also sprinkled with delightfully quirky comic relief, but, again, there's not enough of it, which is unfortunate given how well it works when it's successfully and deftly employed. The picture's fine performances, intriguing character development and stark but gorgeous black-and-white cinematography bolster the elements that do work. But, regrettably, this is yet another example of a film that could have used another round of script revisions and tighter editing to help bring the overall production up to snuff, a problem that seems to be plaguing a plethora of offerings these days. Enjoy what works with this one, but don't be disappointed if you end up getting the distinct impression that it comes up short.