Zalava

Zalava (Persian: زالاوا‎) is a 2021 Iranian horror drama film directed by Arsalan Amiri and written by Amiri, Ida Panahandeh and Tahmineh Bahramalian. The film screened for the first time at the 39th Fajr Film Festival and earned 6 nominations and received 4 awards.

Cast

 * Navid Pourfaraj as Sergeant Masoud Ahmadi
 * Pouria Rahimi Sam as Amardan
 * Hoda Zeinolabedin as Malihe
 * Baset Rezaei as Younes
 * Fereydoun Hamedi as Amous
 * Shahou Rostami as Khalaj
 * Mahsa Hejazi as Khalaj's daughter
 * Leila Beigi as Leila
 * Zahed Zandi as Sergeant Amini
 * Saleh Rahimi as Arhim
 * Hadi Ahmadi as Soldier
 * Darioush Karim Raouf as Zalava People
 * Salar Zarei as Zalava People
 * Masoud Beigi as Zalava People
 * Kordowan Boustan as Musician
 * Varya Amini as Zalava People
 * Asad Houshman as Zalava People
 * Azin Kananian as Zalava People
 * Romina Haji Hosseini as Zalava People
 * Narin Malek as Zalava People
 * Keyvan Sheikh Ahmadi as Zalava People

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. "Marking a confident, cinema-literate feature debut for helmer and co-writer Arsalan Amiri, a member of the Iranian Kurdish minority, the film puts a new spin on genre conventions. But perhaps its biggest asset is the performance of tall, toned and impressively mustached star Navid Pourfaraj as the sergeant of a nearby gendarmerie, whose attempts to lay down the law with the trigger-happy residents of Zalava result in unintended consequences."

— Variety / Alissa Simon

"Amiri has made the village of the film with precise mezzanine, costume design, accent form and behavior and has worked properly on these things."

— Haft / Massoud Farasati