Zalava (Persian: زالاوا) is a 2021 Iranian horror drama film directed by Arsalan Amiri and written by Amiri, Ida Panahandeh and Tahmineh Bahramalian.
[1][2] The film screened for the first time at the 39th Fajr Film Festival and earned 6 nominations and received 4 awards.
[3][4] 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[5] 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[6]