Donya can’t sleep. A newly arrived refugee to the United States from Afghanistan, she spends her nights lying in bed staring at the ceiling.

This is the starting point of British Iranian directorBabak Jalali’s “Fremont,”a contemplative examination of the immigrant experience that finds humor and humanity in its intimate story about wanting simply to find your place in a new land.

Featuring a fun cast of new and familiar faces (including a cameo by Oakland’sBoots Riley), “Fremont” is anchored by a standout leading turn from newcomer Anaita Wali Zada. With the film’s East Bay locations rendered in stark black-and-white, Jalali (who co-wrote with Carolina Cavalier) imbues Fremont –– the city and the movie –– with a dreamlike stillness that’s sometimes soothing, other times unnerving but always captivating.

Formerly a translator for the American military, Donya came to America following the Taliban takeover. But while her adopted home of Fremont has the largest Afghan population in the U.S., she still feels alone. Some of her neighbors refuse to speak with her because of her past work, and so she spends her evenings dining by herself in the local Afghan-owned diner, listening to the waiter comment on Afghan dramas playing on television.

Although its subject matter is heavy, there’s a lightness to Jalali’s approach. His dialogue scenes linger between shots, allowing us to focus on the actors’ expressions as they process their reactions. Framed by cinematographer Laura Valladao in a boxy 4:3 ratio like an old-timey TV show, familiar places like the Fremont BART Station feel foreign and remote, reflecting what the main character is experiencing.

This isolation is only compounded by the mundane drudgery of Donya’s daily commute to San Francisco, where she spends her days wrapping fortune cookies. Sure, she eventually snags the coveted job of writing those fortunes, but that’s not exactly the upward career mobility she was hoping for.

All of this could be repetitive or tiresome but for the revelatory, understated performance by Zada, a refugee herself. Her face contains so much character that even a static shot of the actor facing the camera becomes utterly transfixing.

Donya tries to get a psychologist (Gregg Turkington) to prescribe her some sleeping pills, but this ends up with her having to see him regularly to talk about PTSD (which she doesn’t have) and his own love of the novel “White Fang” (which she hasn’t read).

Finally, in desperation, she sends out a cry for help. But instead of putting a message in a bottle, she puts one in a fortune cookie and hopes the world will answer.

This all culminates in a sort of meet-cute with a shy auto mechanic, played by Jeremy Allen White (“The Bear”). It’s a quiet moment of innocuous interaction that nonetheless feels seismic and cathartic.

人物看起来straigh Jalali经常阶段t ahead at the camera, cutting conversations in such a way that we see the face of the listener while the speaker is heard offscreen. It’s a fascinating approach that puts the viewer in the shoes of both –– a kind of forced empathy to keep the characters Donya encounters from falling into stereotypes.

There’s a sweetness to the film’s closing moments that feels earned after the journey we’ve been on, which speaks to the measured, confident approach Jalali has taken in constructing this tale. “Fremont” is content to let small moments stay small, threading them together for a compelling tapestry of shared humanity.

Zaki Hasan is a freelance writer.