TEHRAN – Acclaimed Iranian film “Zalava” is competing in the MOTELX – Lisbon International Horror Film Festival underway in the Portuguese capital. Winner of the grand prize at the 36th Venice International Film Critics’ Week, “Zalava” is Arsalan Amiri’s directorial …

  Investigating reports of demonic possessions in a remote village, a skeptical military officer finds his beliefs tested by an enigmatic exorcist. In Kurdistan, nestled among the mountains of northwestern Iran, the village of Zalava is cursed by an ancient …

In Arsalan Amiri’s confident feature debut, the invisible demons carry allegorical resonance Set in 1978, in a Kurdish village high in the mountains, Iranian horror entry “Zalava” pits rational, scientific beliefs against superstition and groupthink, a theme that carries a …