In 1978, the inhabitants of Zalava, a small village in Iran, claim that there is a demon among them. While investigating the strange case, Massoud, a young police sergeant, crosses paths with an exorcist.
Critically setting his film in 1978, at the onset of the Iranian Revolution, writer-director Arsalan Amiri conjures an eerie atmosphere, sensitively laced with bitter irony as his script (co-written with Ida Panahandeh and Tahmineh Bahram) wrestles with paradoxical arguments about faith, tradition, and modernity in the face of an ambiguous threat. Escalating to Schrödinger’s demon scenarios of sublime suspense — artfully photographed by Mohammad Rasouli — this dread-filled fable eventually crystalizes these tensions in an irresistible, metaphysical horror dilemma that is guaranteed to haunt you the next time you handle a sealed glass jar, regardless of whether or not a demon waits inside.
8 Wins & 14 Nominations, including Winner of the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at 2021 Venice Film Festival and the FIPRESCI Private at the Venice Fim FestivalRead More »