There was a time when saying "Iranian cinema" meant Abbas Kiarostami's films and the countless movies with children as protagonists. I, at least, was left with that impression and that is why it was totally unexpected to find this drama about exorcism, set in the village of Zalava in the Iranian region of Kurdistan, where gypsies migrated in the 19th century, learned the customs of the region and brought with them fears that manifested themselves as demons.
The film takes place in 1978. A young sergeant is dismissed from his post in the Zalava gendarmerie, when a possessed girl (by a demon or an ancestral fear...) dies accidentally. His father was unable to do what the "exorcist protocol" required, that is, shoot her in the leg, because the sergeant confiscated the rifles with which the inhabitants were also hunting illegally. On the verge of leaving the station, the sergeant decides to stay in Zalava to solve the new case of a demon in the town.
«Zalava» is too subtle and elegant for the public that loves stuff like «The Substance.» The script and direction skillfully move between fright and culture, suspense and ethnography, and social drama and romantic melodrama, always keeping us attentive to the evolution of the characters and to the way in which the perception of the phenomena changes from one to another, until reaching the level of tragedy. The predominating point of view is the logic approach of the sergeant, a man raised in an orphanage, who was called Six Fingers. In love with the beautiful village doctor, he tells her how, after being rejected because of the superstition of what having a sixth finger meant, he learned to respect its space, to take care of it, until it disappeared alone and, from then on, he assumed everything in life from that perspective. He is a rationalist rather than a skeptic, and analyzes the facts coldly. This character is contrasted by the exorcist (Rahimi Sam), a serious man confident in his profession, who does not doubt his ability to control demons, while the doctor stays in the middle, open to all manifestations.
A day after seeing it, "Zalava" is still a film that intrigues me, that awakens curiosity and reflection on themes such as faith and the unwavering adherence to the irrational. In addition, it is visually beautiful and an admirable first film. My only complaint is the abundance of dialogue in the final confrontation, but then I think that it may be a cultural trait, related to a certain gypsy verbosity, in a well-managed framework between professional actors and natural actors. The film won the Grand Prix of the International Association of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) at the Venice Film Festival, and the awards for Best First Film, Screenplay and Supporting Actor (Pourya Rahimi Sam) at the Fajr Film Festival. Highly recommended.
