Iranian ‘Zalava’ to screen for Chicago Critics

Iranian feature film ‘Zalava’ has been selected to hit the screen at the Chicago Critics Film Festival in the US.

The screening slot the 34th edition of the American event has designated to the film directed by Arsalan Amiri is on November 12.

‘Zalava’ is an inter-genre film that narrates the tale of village people’s fear of an unknown phenomenon and their efforts to bring back security to their village.

They claim to be cursed by a demon and so an exorcist is trying to redeem them from it. A young gendarmerie sergeant attempts to denounce the exorcist in charge, whom he believes is nothing but a fraud.

His action, however, angers the villagers, for which the young man then must pay the price.

Navid Pour-Faraj, Pouria Rahimi-Sam and Hoda Zeinolabedin have played the key roles of the flick.

‘Zalava’ was premiered at the 39th edition of the Fajr Film Festival in Iran, where it won two awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Rahimi-Sam) and Best Screenplay (Amiri, Ida Panahandeh and Tahmineh Bahram).

The movie has also gone on screen at some global events, including the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada, the Hong Kong Asian Film Financing Forum and the Venice International Film Critics’ Week in Italy.

The Chicago Critics Film Festival is an annual event that hosts variety of movies from the well-established ones to the ones yet not distributed by either established award-winning filmmakers or talented emerging ones.

This year’s edition of the fest is slated for November 12-14.

AA/FM