Fremont

image for Fremont

Short takes

Not suitable under 12; parental guidance to 13 (language, themes, subtitles). May lack interest under 17.

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Fremont
  • a review of Fremont completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 10 May 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 12 Not suitable due to language, themes and subtitles.
Children aged 12–13 Parental guidance recommended due to language and themes.
Children aged 14 and over Ok for this age group, though may lack interest under 17.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Fremont
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes and occasional coarse language
Length: 91 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Donya (Anaita Wali Zada), a former translator for US troops in Afghanistan, finds herself in Fremont, California. She lives in an apartment complex with numerous other Afghan refugees and works at a Chinese fortune cookie factory. On the surface, her life seems good: she is safe, she has a job, a good friend and a place to live but Donya is haunted by thoughts of her former life and is extremely lonely, holding herself back from enjoying her newfound freedom due to a sense of guilt. She is unable to sleep and visits a psychiatrist in order to get sleeping pills. Dr Anthony (Gregg Turkington) helps her look at life through a different lens and, instead of relying on pills, helps her create opportunities that will assist in her rehabilitation. When Donya is offered a promotion at work, she finds herself in charge of writing the fortunes that go into the cookies and she takes it upon herself to send a personal message out into the world, only she could never foresee the consequences arising from this simple act of desperation. And, whether she knows it or not, her life will never be the same again.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

War; Survivor Guilt; Post Traumatic Stress; Problems faced by refugees; Loneliness; Betrayal.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • A character mentions that they were unable to kill using mouse poison.
  • Donya mentions that several bases she worked for were attacked at different times.
  • Donya mentions that a fellow translator was killed almost immediately after he stopped working for the US, while he was still waiting for his papers.
  • Donya recalls how another friend of hers was unable to make it to the evacuation flight and how she doesn’t know if he is dead or alive.
  • An older woman dies at a keyboard while writing fortunes for cookies.
  • Donya’s therapist explains how White Fang was the sole survivor of a family that was decimated by famine. His owner trained him to be a vicious killer and he was nearly killed by a bulldog.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

  • None noted.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

  • None noted.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • The book, White Fang, by Jack London is repeatedly referred to and passages are read.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Donya is told that her single bed doesn’t invite the possibility of “company”.
  • A friend of Donya’s encourages her to try on-line dating as Donya is wary of blind dates.
  • Donya asks her neighbour if he feels guilty thinking about love when there are people risking their lives in Kabul.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Donya believes that sleeping pills will make all her problems go away and says as much to her psychiatrist.
  • Men smoke on a balcony.
  • Donya visits a colleague in her home after work and the two share beers together.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Asshole
  • Mother fucker
  • Dipstick
  • Idiot.

In a nutshell

Fremont is an understated drama, filmed largely in black and white. It uses minimal dialogue and employs the use of some subtitles. The film is best suited to older audiences.

The main messages from this movie are that we can’t control what happens to us but we can control how we perceive the world and what we do about it; that it is important to stand up for what we believe; and that everyone on Earth is entitled to love and happiness.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Friendship
  • Persistence
  • Compassion
  • Wisdom
  • Courage.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Feeling responsible for things outside of your control.
  • Treating others poorly because they have a different culture, gender or they do not share your beliefs.
  • Keeping yourself isolated due to a sense of guilt.