![]() MONTAGNE: Did your family ask you to stay? Or did they really want you to go? People were running, and everyone were scared. So I got out of the office with my colleagues. ![]() Be safe because Taliban there are near to us. Then, came August of 2021, and the Taliban were suddenly at the gates of Kabul.ĪNAITA WALI ZADA: I was at my office, and our boss came to the room, and he said, OK, you have to go to your house. Both were also highly aware that as journalists, they could be targeted and killed by the Taliban, as others were. Both had created entertaining talk shows. Both she and her sister Taban Ibraz were highly visible TV journalists in Kabul. ![]() Anaita Wali Zada wasn't an actress, but she had thrived in Afghanistan's vibrant media. MONTAGNE: And that is how a young Afghan refugee came to hear about the casting call. So what we did was we put out open casting calls on social media and through Afghan community centers all around the United States. JALALI: When we were casting for the role of Donya, for me, it was crucial that the lead was played by an Afghan. And since the main character is pretty much in every frame, Babak Jalali says the big challenge was to get the right actress for the part. The movie is populated by Donya's helpful Afghan neighbors, wacky co-workers and an eccentric therapist trying to cure her persistent insomnia. MONTAGNE: And there is enough dry and droll humor scattered throughout that one admiring reviewer at Sundance dubbed it semi-enchanted deadpan. JALALI: Generally speaking, I am very much interested in, let's say, understated humor, dry humor. MONTAGNE: Filmmaker Babak Jalali did want this tale to be quirky. Shot in a luminous black and white, the film feels like a fable with a heroine suspended between the past and the present.īABAK JALALI: When we wrote the film and also when it came to directing it, I didn't want it to become a kitchen sink or a very hyperrealistic refugee story. Now she is isolated, unable to sleep or create dreams for her new life. Back in Kabul, Donya had been a translator for American troops. RENEE MONTAGNE, BYLINE: When we meet Donya, she is folding cookies in a fortune cookie factory, expressionless, responding only with a wry smile to her friendly co-workers' loopy chatter. NPR's Renee Montagne has the story of the movie and also its star, who actually did flee Afghanistan. She lives in the California city of Fremont, a longtime destination for Afghans escaping troubles in their country. It's called "Fremont." The drama follows a young Afghan woman who came to America on an evacuation flight in the chaotic days after the Taliban's return. Making the rounds of prominent film festivals is a gem of a film critics are embracing.
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