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Iran’s Arsalan Amiri, who won two awards at Venice for his debut feature “Zalava,” is at the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Project Market with “For the Girls of the Tribe.”

Inspired by a real historical event that took place in 1905 in Iran, the film will tell the story of a group of peasants who rescue two girls among dozens who were kidnapped by rebels. The girls have information about a betrayal and are taken before the ruler to provide their testimony but he refuses to accept it, as, according to tradition, a woman’s testimony is only half as valuable as a man’s.

“For hundreds of years before this event and even decades after, this situation has recurred in different parts of the world: a group of women is oppressed and most of society, the government and even some other women are silent or passive about it due to fear,...

Projects by Rima Das and Emma Kawawada also among 30 titles set to be pitched.

South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has unveiled the 30 titles selected for the 2023 Asian Project Market (Apm), including new works by Makbul Mubarak, Koji Fukada, Rima Das and Emma Kawawada.

The film financing event, which runs as part of Biff’s Asian Contents and Film Market, will take place from October 7-10 and comprises projects by directors who have made at least one short or full-length feature as well as producers who have been involved with at least one feature. They will conduct four...

Busan International Film Festival has announced the 30 projects selected for this year’s Asian Project Market (Apm), including new works from leading Asian filmmakers such as Japan’s Koji Fukada, Indonesia’s Makbul Mubarak and India’s Rima Das.

Fukada, whose previous films have premiered at Cannes and Venice (Love Life), will present Japan-France co-production Nagi Notes, produced by Osanai Terutaro.

Mubarak, whose Autobiography premiered at last year’s Venice before embarking on an awards haul across Asia, is bringing Watch It Burn, produced by Indonesia’s Yulia Evina Bhara, one of the producers on this year’s Cannes Critics Week winner Tiger Stripes.

Das is a Busan regular who has also had films play in Toronto and Berlin (Bulbul Can Sing). She will present Malti My Love, which the self-taught filmmaker will also produce, just as she has produced, written,...

The Busan film festival’s Asian Project Market is set to welcome several of the region’s top auteurs either as producers or prospective directors at its next edition in October.

Apm organizers Thursday unveiled 30 projects to be presented during a four-day round of one-on-one meetings and pitching sessions.

India’s Rima Das (“Tora’s Husband”) will pitch “Malti My Love.” Japan’s Fukada Koji will pitch “Nagi Notes.” Indonesia’s Makbul Mubarak (“Autobiography”) will pitch “Watch It Burn.”

Among the successful producers adding their weight to Apm contenders are: Patrick Mao Huang selling Peter Ho’s project “Appetite for Desire”; Jeremy Chua, pitching Rafael Manuel’s “Filipinana”; Ichiyama Shozo (“Ash Is Puirest White”) pitching Song Fang’s Japan-China collaboration “Full Moon”; Fran Borgia pitching Aakash Chhabra’s “I’ll Smile in September”; and Tan Chui Mui (“Barbarian Invasion”) pitching Jian Xiaoshuan’s “To Kill A Mongolian Horse.”

The project...

Iran’s Arsalan Amiri, who won two awards at Venice for his debut feature “Zalava,” is back at the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf) with his new project, “Janava.”

“Zalava,” which was at Haf in 2019, also played at the Toronto, Rotterdam and the Goteborg festivals, among many others. The Farsi-language “Janava” will follow four treasure hunters who embark on a journey to find a lost treasure. Their lives are in danger when they realize a djinn (or genie) is among them and wants to claim the treasure for itself.

“My previous film, ‘Zalava,’ focused on the dangerous beliefs of the masses. My second film, ‘Janava,’ focuses on the individual beliefs of characters and how they defy societal norms,” Amiri says. “Belief is my favorite theme to work with. I have faced the good and bad effects of belief in my life — but when these beliefs are warped or...

Η φετινή σεζόν ήταν ασυνήθιστη για τον ασιατικό κινηματογράφο, μιας και δεν υπήρχε κάποιο αριστούργημα του διαμετρήματος των Παρασίτων ή του Burning, αλλά ως σύνολο, πολύ περισσότερες καλές ταινίες, κάτι που πολύ πιθανόν να οφείλεται και στο ότι πολλές παραγωγές είχαν παγώσει λόγω Covid και προβλήθηκαν φέτος. Χωρίς πολλά λόγια, αυτές είναι οι επιλογές μου για τις καλύτερες ασιατικές ταινίες της χρονιάς. Για τις πλήρεις κριτικές στα αγγλικά, μπορείτα απλά να κάνετε κλικ στον τίτλο. Κάποια από τα φιλμ μπορεί να ήταν παραγωγής 2021, αλλά μιας και κυκλοφόρησαν κυρίως το 2022, αποφάσισα να τις συμπεριλάβω

30. Zalava (Arsalan Amiri, Iran)

Arsalan Amiri bases his whole narrative on the questions mentioned above, with the reply regarding if the movie will turn into a supernatural horror (thus meaning the locals are right) or continue as a social drama regarding the blights of disidemony (thus meaning the sergeant is right) carrying the movie almost to the end.

Hong Kong’s Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf) on Thursday unveiled a rich, 28-title selection for its forthcoming 21st edition, featuring promising projects in development from Singaporean Camera d’Or winner Anthony Chen, maverick Hong Kong director Fruit Chan, rising Thai talent Jakrawal Nilthamrong and veteran festival ringmaster Marco Mueller, among many others. Haf is returning in 2023 for its first in-person forum since 2019, following three consecutive online editions during the coronavirus pandemic.

As per usual, the event will be held March 13–15 in tandem with the 27th Hong Kong Film & TV Market (aka Filmart), which runs March 13-16.

Of the 28 titles picked from 244 submissions spanning 38 countries and territories, Haf says half are from first-time filmmakers and eight are Chinese-language projects developed at recent editions of the Haf Film Lab mentorship program. The selection spans a broad range of genres, including arthouse drama, horror, fantasy, romance, animation and family films.

Chen, director...

The selection will be showcased at the first physical Haf since 2019.

The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (Hkiffs) has announced 28 in-development projects for the 21st Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf), which is set to return as an in-person event for the first time since 2019.

The projects span horror, fantasy, romance, family drama and animation, and include seven from Hong Kong, eight from Haf Film Lab and 14 directorial debuts. There are also projects from acclaimed filmmakers and producers such as Arsalan Amiri, Anthony Chen, Fruit Chan, Jakrawal Nilthamrong, Lin Yu-Hsien, Nai An, Nader Saeivar, Teddy Robin and Tian Zhuangzhuang.

After two years of hybrid and online-only editions, the Neuchatel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival will fête its 21st year with a return to a fully on-site event, hosting four world premieres, and more than twice as many international premieres.

Running July 1-9, the Swiss event will world premiere the absurdist “Jaws”-in-France riff “The Year of the Shark,” the Thai creature feature “Leio,” and the Japanese Yakuza thriller “Bad City.” Titles like the Toho-produced Kaiju flick “Shin Ultraman,” “Something in the Dirt” from U.S. horror maestros Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, and Léa Mysius’ “The Five Devils” will mark their international berths at Nifff – the latter as the festival’s opening film.

This blackjack edition will also mark the first year under the direction of Pierre-Yves Walder, a Nifff veteran whose involvement with the lakefront festival dates back some time. After a stint in the press office, years as a programmer,...

Set in the late Seventies in an Iran on the brink of giving way to religious fundamentalism, Arsalan Amiri’s Zalava presents a scenario which functions like a microcosm of the forces at work, and whose release seems timely now as other parts of the world are threatened by the mass rejection of reason in favour of simpler apparent solutions. It follows the sergeant of the local gendarmerie, city-born Massoud (Navid Pourfaraj), as he attempts to disabuse residents of the titular village of the notion that demons are taking possession of people and livestock.

If this sounds like a trivial exercise, consider this: when a person is thought to be possessed, the treatment involves shooting them in the legs so that they bleed heavily and the demon will be flushed out of the body. This isn’t inhumane – it is thought to be the only way of saving such a person,...

Theatrical release planned for later this year.

Corinth Films has acquired North American rights from Copenhagen-based LevelK to Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker Arsalan Amiri’s Venice and Fantastic Fest award winner Zalava.

LevelK continues talks with EFM buyers this week on the film set in 1978 at the onset of the Iranian Revolution as a young military officer investigates reports of demonic possession in a remote Kurdish village.

When the officer arrests a local shaman it incenses the villagers, who trap him and his lover in a cursed home. Amiri directed his feature debut from his screenplay and previously wrote Titi and Nahid.

Line-up includes projects from producers Winnie Tsang and Stanley Kwan and an Israel-Italy co-production.

New projects from producers Winnie Tsang and Stanley Kwan and an Israel-Italy co-production are among the 15 work-in-progress projects selected for the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum’s (Haf) 20th anniversary edition

Among the selection, Hkiff industry director Jacob Wong highlighted two projects: Borrowed Time and The Sunny Side Of The Street. “They are the first projects to have progressed through the Haf eco-system, from Film Lab to In-development projects, and now onto Wip,” he said.

Both won script consultation service awards at Haf Film Lab in...

The questions regarding the existence of the supernatural, and particularly the if human behavior can actually cause superstition to become reality has been one that has been tormenting people forever, philosophers as much as filmmakers among them. Arsalan Amiri presents his take on the subject in a film that moves in paths that combine horror, crime thriller, and social drama, with the first two though being the most dominant.

“Zalava” is screening on International Film Festival Rotterdam Nederland, Rotterdam, 11/01/2021, iffr vlaggen op de boompjes, foto Jan de Groen

The story takes place in 1978, in Zalava, a remote Kurdish village whose inhabitants have always considered themselves fighters against demons. As the story begins, and the daughter of one is deemed possessed, the rational young sergeant Massoud, who is in charge of the gendarmerie in the area, decides to confiscate the rifles of all the villagers, in order to avoid having them killing each other by accident.

Leading indie film project market, the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum has revealed a selection of 28 titles for its twentieth edition and confirmed that it will be held online for the third time in a row.

“Unfortunately, we won’t have the opportunity to celebrate our 20th anniversary by hosting our usual in-person event due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and travel restrictions,” Hkiff industry director Jacob Wong said. “Nevertheless, based on experience gained from the last two years, we will strive to improve our online booking and meeting system to make it a breeze for all participants.”

The market will operate March 14-16, 2022, alongside the 26th edition of rights market Hong Kong FilMart (March 14-17.)

The market contains a familiar mix of experienced hands and newcomers. Among the well-established producers and directors with projects selected are: Huang Ji (2021 Rotterdam festival winner “Egg and Stone”); Hong Kong’s Jun Li...

The scariest part about writer/director Arsalan Amiri’s Iranian Revolution horror movie “Zalava” is an invisible, potentially demonic force housed inside a glass jar. Whether or not what’s in there is actually a demon or not remains ambiguous in the film’s economic screenplay, nor does it really matter. The real harbinger of doom here is the violent aura of persecution plaguing the small, eponymous village nestled in the mountains of Kurdistan, and the real curse is the paranoia of one’s own neighbor raining down fire on the community. set off by a shaman who claims he has a solution to the townsfolk’s fears.

The movie kicks off with a series of title cards to settle us into the time and place: “1978. Before the revolution. A century ago, a band of gypsies traveling from east to west settled in lava and became acquainted with the customs...

Fantastic Fest 2021 is bringing its physical edition to an end on September 30, and IndieWire is exclusively revealing this year’s award winners below. Many of the winning features will be available to stream September 30 through October 11 as part of the virtual Fantastic Fest at Home, including “After Blue,” “Zalava,” “Name Above Title,” and “Let the Wrong One In.” All the award-winning short films will stream virtual as well.

This year’s Competition winner for Best Film is Bertrand Mandico’s “After Blue.” The movie is set on a mysterious planet populated entirely by women, where a teenager and her mother set out on a journey to find a murderous criminal.

“After Blue (Dirty Paradise) is a mutant-cinema dream,” Mandico said in a statement. “The dream of taking my actresses and collaborators towards an emotional lyricism of creation. The dream of giving spectators an out-of-format, intoxicating and disturbing fantasy. Thanks to...

­­The inhabitants of Zalava were never meant to stay in one place. Their ancestors were nomads and now they’ve become farmers. So where did the demons come from? Were they always here, waiting for settlers? Did their relatives bring the evil with them? Or has the restlessness in their bones from staying in one place for so long simply made them stir crazy to the point of needing those spirits to provide context for their anxieties? They admit to the sergeant (Navid Pourfaraj’s Massoud) from the town down the road that demons only come once a year. That’s their excuse for why it’s not a big deal. It’s possible, then, that harvest-season stress is too much to bear. Either way, something must be done.

Their solution is tried and true. First they single out the person who is possessed. Then they enlist an exorcist to come and remove it,...

It should be hard to dislike a movie in which one of the first lines of dialogue is “My sheep are possessed!” Unfortunate, then, that the allegorical scare-flick Zalava, Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker Arsalan Amiri’s feature directorial debut, proves so dull and deadening, even at a brief 93 minutes.

Set in 1978, on the cusp of the culture-altering Iranian Revolution, the film follows a gendarmerie sergeant named Masoud (Navid Pourfaraj) who is in his last days policing the superstitious residents of the eponymous village. Masoud has the pierce-you-to-the-core stare of a born skeptic; The X-Files’ Dana Scully would think he ...

It should be hard to dislike a movie in which one of the first lines of dialogue is “My sheep are possessed!” Unfortunate, then, that the allegorical scare-flick Zalava, Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker Arsalan Amiri’s feature directorial debut, proves so dull and deadening, even at a brief 93 minutes.

Set in 1978, on the cusp of the culture-altering Iranian Revolution, the film follows a gendarmerie sergeant named Masoud (Navid Pourfaraj) who is in his last days policing the superstitious residents of the eponymous village. Masoud has the pierce-you-to-the-core stare of a born skeptic; The X-Files’ Dana Scully would think he ...

Some 22 projects are receiving support from the Swedish fund.

The new Göteborg Film Fund has confirmed its second round of funding, including its first development grants.

The supported projects include the Iranian-Kurdish thriller Zalava, the feature debut of Arsalan Amiri, which is competing in Venice Critics’ Week; and Ukrainian drama Pamfir, by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk. The latter is now in post and selected for the Venice Gap Financing Market and is about a decent man who gives up his honest job to help his family.

In addition, Oleg Sentsov, who is premiering Rhino in Venice, is receiving development supportt for his fiction film Kai.

Exclusive: Here’s your first trailer for Iranian drama-horror Zalava, which is playing in the Venice Critics’ Week, the independent and parallel section of the Venice Film Festival.

Set in 1978, the film hones in on the inhabitants of a small village in Iran called Zalava who claim there is a demon among them. Massoud, a young police officer who investigates the claim encounters an exorcist attempting to rid the village of the demon. When he arrests the exorcist on charges of fraud, the villagers revolt and anger escalates. Massoud and his lover, a government doctor, soon find themselves trapped in a cursed house, surrounded by villagers who believe they are both possessed by the demon.

After its Venice berth, the movie will head to TIFF in the midnight Madness section. LevelK is handling international sales.

The Kurdish and Persian language film was directed by Arsalan Amiri from a script by Ida Panahandeh,...

Arsalan Amiri, who previously served as screenwriter on Titi and Nahid, makes his feature directorial debut with the film.

LevelK has boarded international sales for Iranian drama Zalava, which will screen in Toronto’s Midnight Madness and Venice Critics’ Week.

Arsalan Amiri, who previously served as screenwriter on Titi and Nahid, makes his feature directorial debut with the film. The drama is set in 1978 in a small village called Zavala, where the villagers claim there is a demon amongst them. A young sergeant arrests an exorcist for fraud, causing fear and anger to escalate in the village.

Amiri also writes...

The Toronto International Film Festival announced which films will fill the TIFF Docs, Midnight Madness, and Wavelength sections at this year’s edition of the event, which runs from Sept. 9-18. The festival also added new titles to the Special Presentation and Contemporary World Cinema programs.

Opening TIFF Docs is the world premiere of “Attica” by Stanley Nelson, which tells the story of the 1971 Attica prison riot. Coming about as a result of the prisoners’ fight for more humane living conditions and lasting for five days, it remains the deadliest prison rebellion in U.S. history.

Wavelengths will open with “Neptune Frost” from directors and married couple Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman. The film is billed a sci-fi musical romance between an intersex hacker and a coltan miner that will follow the “virtual marvel born as a result of their union.” This marks the North American premiere of the film,...

BenedictionThe lineup has been unveiled for the 2021 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, which will take place over 10 days (September 9-18) both in-person and physically in Toronto, and digitally across Canada. Wavelengths - FEATURESFutura (Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher)The Girl and the Spider (Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher)Neptune Frost (Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman)A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia)Ste. Anne (Rhayne Vermette)The Tsugua Diaries (Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes)Wavelengths - SHORTSThe Capacity for Adequate Anger (Vika Kirchenbauer)Dear Chantal (Querida Chantal) (Nicolás Pereda)earthearthearth (Daïchi Saïto)Inner Outer Space (Laida Lertxundi)Polycephaly in D (Michael Robinson)“The red filter is withdrawn.” (Minjung Kim)Train Again (Peter Tscherkassky)Midnight Madness After Blue (Dirty Paradise) (Bertrand Mandico)Dashcam (Rob Savage)Saloum (Jean Luc Herbulot)Titane (Julia Ducournau)You Are Not My Mother (Kate Dolan)Zalava (Arsalan Amiri)TIFF DOCSAttica (Stanley Nelson)Beba (Rebeca Huntt)Becoming Cousteau...

Titles include a new film from ‘Host’ director Rob Savage.

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has added 35 feature titles to its line-up for 2021, predominantly across the TIFF Docs, Midnight Madness and Wavelengths strands.

The new titles include 11 world premieres, consisting of eight in TIFF Docs and three in Midnight Madness.

Titles in the latter include Dashcam, the new film from Rob Savage, director of 2020 pandemic horror hit Host. Savage was named a Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2013.

Also in the Midnight Madness section is Kate Dolan’s You Are Not My Mother, inspired by the mythology of the Changeling, which...

The programme for the 2021 Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, and includes new films from Pedro Almodóvar, Jane Campion, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michelangelo Frammartino, Pablo Larraín, Paul Schrader, Ridley Scott, and more.Parallel MothersCOMPETITIONParallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar)Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (Ana Lily Amirpour)Un Autre Monde (Stephane Brize)The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion)America LatinaL’Evenement (Audrey Diwan)Official CompetitionThe Hole (Michelangelo Frammartino)Sundown (Michel Franco)Lost Illusions (Xavier Giannoli)The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal)Spencer (Pablo Larrain)Freaks Out (Gabriele Mainetti)Qui Rido Io (Mario Martone)On The Job: The Missing 8 (Erik Matti)Leave No Traces (Jan P. Matuszyński)Captain Volkonogov EscapedThe Card Counter (Paul Schrader)The Hand of God (Paolo Sorrentino)Reflection (Valentyn Vasyanovych)The Box (Lorenzo Vigas)Out Of COMPETITIONFeaturesDune (Denis Villeneuve)Il Bambino Nascosto (Roberto Andò)Les Choses Humaines (Yvan Attal)Ariaferma (Leonardo Di Costanzo)Halloween Kills (David Gordon Green...

Hong Kong, 2 February 2021 – The Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf) today unveils 21 projects for the fifth edition of its Work-in-Progress section (Wip). Established and emerging filmmakers such as Chang Tso-Chi, Huang Ji, Pierre Sarraf, Tan Chui Mui, and Jessey Tsang will present their latest work, along with 12 first-feature directors.

The Wip section will return to its regular slot this year, running from 15 to 17 March in conjunction with the main Haf programme and the 25th Hong Kong Filmart (Filmart). Given the Covid-19 pandemic’s ongoing restrictions, the event will go online again following its first-ever virtual edition in August 2020.

Wip began in 2017 as a dedicated platform for later-stage projects seeking completion funding, post-production partners, distributors and sales agents, and film festival support, extending the services of the main Haf programme which is for projects in the pre-production or development stages.

There were 129 submissions from 50 countries and regions this year. Most...

Line-up includes 10 docs and 11 fiction films, mostly from Asia, with several European productions and co-productions.

New works from filmmakers including Chang Tso-chi, Huang Ji, Pierre Sarraf, Tan Chui Mui and Jessey Tsang are among the 21 projects selected for the Work-in-Progress section (Wip) of this year’s Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf).

The Wip projects will be presented online alongside the main programme of Haf (March 15-17) and Hong Kong Filmart (March 15-18). Most are at the post-production stage, with several currently in production. The line-up includes 10 documentaries and 11 fiction films, mostly from Asia, with several European productions and co-productions.

Historically, ethnic minorities around the world have suffered, and 2019 sees no change in this regard. A brace of Haf projects highlight some of the problems faced by them.

From Iran, Arsalan Amiri’s horror/black comedy “Zalava” is set in a village terrified by demonic possession, where a young, agnostic police officer arrests challenges local beliefs by arresting an exorcist on fraud charges when he claims to capture an invisible demon.

“Zalava,” which is the name of the village where the film is set, is informed by Amiri’s experience as a member of the Kurdish ethnic minority in Iran. “Middle East nations cannot escape the burden of thousands of years of religions and belief, and remain trapped in wars, killings and hatred with no hope for possible solution for peace,” says Amiri in his director’s statement. “I want to depict this agonizing dilemma in my film.”

“Nahid,” written by Amiri and Ida Panahandeh,...

The American Film Institute announced today the films that will screen in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, Shorts and Cinema’s Legacy programs at AFI Fest 2015 presented by Audi.

AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.

World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...