But the real star of this moody, black-and-white drama is the Bay Area. The entire film, from the body shop where White works as a quiet auto mechanic to the diner where he shares a pivotal scene with co-star Anaita Wali Zada, was shot in 20 days in Oakland, San Francisco and Fremont. The movie premiered at Sundance in January, screened at SFFILM in April and is set to hit Bay Area theaters this weekend, with showings in San Francisco, San Rafael, Berkeley, Castro Valley and, of course, Fremont.
Zada, who is a first-time actor, plays Donya, an immigrant who was a translator in Afghanistan before fleeing Taliban rule on an evacuation plane. She settles in Fremont, in a tight-knit Afghan community, and spends her days working at a family-run fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. London-based Iranian-born director Babak Jalali told SFGATE that he has always had a fascination with the Bay Area (“Fremont” is his second film shot here, after 2016’s “Radio Dreams,” starring Metallica’s Lars Ulrich). Once he learned that Fremont had the largest Afghan population in the United States, he knew he had found his muse.
Hilda Schmeling and Anaita Wali Zada play fortune cookie factory workers in the new film “Fremont.”
Courtesy of Music Box Films
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“I think it [Fremont] is a like a microcosm of the Bay Area in the sense that it’s just so diverse,” Jalali said. Filming was set to begin in 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic. At the time, Jalali said, it felt like the world was becoming more isolated. “We had Brexit in the U.K., you guys had the elections, and it seemed like politicians were striking the fear of God into people about being afraid of anyone who is different.” In the city of Fremont, however, he could feel a “preserved” sense of community, he said.
And that’s ultimately what the character of Donya is searching for as she hops a train at the Fremont BART Station bound for San Francisco every morning: a sense of belonging in a new place. At work, Donya wraps fortune cookies and eventually even writes the messages within them. She decides to send one hopeful message out into the world, which leads to a chance encounter in a diner with Allen’s character — and her first glimmer of belonging.
“The film is essentially about the idea of possibilities,” Jalali said. And that’s what those slips of paper are all about, Jalali explained about the fortune cookies. “Some of them are just silly. But, some of them, you know, you get one, and it makes you think — kind of linger on the idea of possibilities.”
The Oakland Fortune Factory has been in Oakland's Chinatown since 1957.
Jean L./Yelp
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Contrary to what you might expect, those stunning scenes featuring custom-built, hand-welded machines don’t take place inside the famed Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in San Francisco or even a Los Angeles soundstage. They were shot inside the Bay Area’s other landmark fortune cookie factory — Oakland Fortune Factory — in Oakland’s Chinatown.
“It’s an amazing place because they’re using the same machinery they’ve used for decades,” Jalali said. “It looks like a place stuck in time, but it functions incredibly well.”
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Jalali and his crew spent five days filming inside Oakland Fortune Factory, which has been in Oakland’s Chinatown for 66 years. Owner Alicia Wong, along with her parents, Jiamin and Lin, purchased the factory seven years ago from founders Calvin Wong and his family (distantly related). According to Alicia, the founders started the factory in 1957 as a refuge for Chinese immigrants seeking community and employment in the Bay Area. Back then, it was almost exclusively run by women. With the exception of Wong’s dad and partner, Alex, it still is.
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“We want to preserve it,” Alicia said. “We’ve kept all the same recipes, primitive machinery and principles. We still make everything by hand.” While the Wongs have honored tradition, they have also innovated over the years, adding flourishes like dipping chocolate, rainbow colors and Lunar New Year fortune cookies.
A veteran staffer at the Oakland Fortune Factory sorts through a fresh batch to remove any imperfect cookies.
Courtesy of Alicia Wong
Rather than disrupt business for the factory, which runs on customer orders for weddings and other events, Jalali and crew filmed while the factory was open and firing on all cylinders. The hair-netted workers in the film are actual Oakland Fortune Factory employees — including Alicia’s mom, Jiamin.
“It’s a specialized thing,” said Jalali, who regularly uses nonprofessional actors in his films. “I mean, it’s not like anybody can just sit there and do this … they’ve been doing it for a long time … so it adds a sense of realism … getting their hands mixing the stuff.”
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Jiamin still likes mixing the batter herself every morning. It’s made with just three ingredients: cane sugar, wheat flour and soybean oil.
After the batter is mixed, it’s poured into a bucket before traveling into a spout that dispenses individual portions of batter onto a carousel of moving “3-inch round tiny panini press” plates. Once baked, the flat, round disks are peeled off, quickly fitted with a fortune and pinched into shape.
“It hardens so quickly, you have like, two to three seconds,” Alicia said.
Jeremy Allen White and Anaita Wali Zada meet in a chance encounter in the new film “Fremont,” which was filmed entirely in the Bay Area.
Courtesy of Music Box Films
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At first, Wong and her family didn’t understand why anyone would want to shoot a movie inside their little fortune cookie factory. They were also hesitant, Alicia said.
“We didn’t want to contribute to the long history of misrepresentation of minority immigrants in movies, so we wanted to make sure the characters would be portrayed in an authentic manner,” she said.
But when they learned more about the story, about the universal longing for community, they were in.
FILE: Jeremy Allen White attends the 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at Fairmont Century Plaza on Feb. 26, 2023, in Los Angeles.
Emma McIntyre/FilmMagic
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“This [movie] resonates with us because we know how it feels to be from another country, to feel alienated and lost and alone,” she said. “That feeling of hope and finding a new life, to be given an opportunity that you couldn’t be given before. I know all the employees here feel the same way.”
“Fremont” is scheduled to screen at the following Bay Area movie theaters, beginning Aug. 24 at the Roxie in San Francisco. Check their websites for screening dates and times:
Roxie Theater, San Francisco (Director Babak Jalali will be at the Aug. 25 and Aug. 26 screenings)
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