‘Zalava’ to vie at Venice filmfest

Iranian feature ‘Zalava’ is slated to vie at the Venice Film Festival in Italy.

The film will be screened at the main competition section of the 78th edition of the event.

Directed by Arsalan Amiri, the film narrates an imaginary story in an imaginary land with imaginary people in the 70s.

The inter-genre film narrates the tale of people’s fear of an unknown phenomenon and their efforts to bring back security to the region.

A tagline on the movie reads, “When a village claims to be cursed by a demon, a gendarmerie sergeant attempts to denounce the exorcist in charge, whom he believes is nothing but a fraud.”

In 1978, in a small village called Zalava, some inhabitants claim there is a demon among them. Masoud, a young gendarmerie sergeant, goes to investigate. He encounters an exorcist attempting to rid the village of the demon. He arrests the exorcist on charges of fraud, but he finds himself stuck in a cursed house with his lover. The villagers, who believe they are both possessed by the demon, decide to burn down the house,” its synopsis reads.

Founded in 1932, the Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia) is the oldest film festival in the world and one of the Big Three film festivals alongside the Cannes Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival.

This year’s edition of the event is scheduled for September 1-11.

FM/FM