Director

Babak Jalali

2 Films in collection

Babak Jalali was born in Northern Iran and raised primarily in London. His short film, HEYDAR, AN AFGHAN IN TEHRAN, received a BAFTA nomination for Best Short Film in 2006. He developed his debut feature film, FRONTIER BLUES, at the Cannes Film Festival Cinefondation Residence. The film premiered in Official Competition at the 2009 Locarno International Film Festival and went on to receive the Fipresci Award at the San Francisco Film Festival. His second feature, RADIO DREAMS, won the Hivos Tiger Award at the 2016 Rotterdam Film Festival, received the Special Jury Award at the Seattle International Film Festival and won Best Director at the Andrei Tarkovsky Film Festival in Russia. His third feature, LAND, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2018. FREMONT is his fourth feature film and premiered at Sundance in 2023.

Filmography

2002 A TRIP TO THE COAST (short)
2003 NADJA (short)
2004 BOXES (short)
2006 HEYDAR, AN AFGHAN IN TEHRAN (short)
2009 FRONTIER BLUES
2016 RADIO DREAMS
2018 LAND
2023 FREMONT

Fremont (Flyer)

Fremont (2023)

Beautiful and troubled 20-something Donya, an Afghan translator who used to work with the U.S. government, has trouble sleeping. She lives by herself in Fremont, California, in a building with other Afghan immigrants and often dines alone at a local restaurant watching soap operas. Her routine changes when she’s promoted to writing the fortunes at her job at a fortune cookie factory in the city. As her fortunes are read by strangers throughout the Bay, Donya’s smoldering longing drives her to send a message out to the world, unsure where it will lead. More

Frontier Blues (Flyer)

Frontier Blues (2009)

Hassan vit seul avec son oncle et un âne. Alam travaille dans un élevage de poulet, les oreilles perpétuellement collées à des écouteurs pour ses leçonsd’anglais. Il rêve de partir à Bakou avec Ana. Un photographe emmène un musicien pour faire des portraits des traditions de Golestan, où vit tout ce joli monde, non loin de la Caspienne et du Turkménistan. Babak Jalali est retourné saisir le pouls de sa bourgade natale.   Des moments de pur cinéma More