TEHRAN – Acclaimed Iranian films “Zalava” and “Don’t Breathe” will be competing in the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) in South Korea.

Winner of the grand prize at the 36th Venice International Film Critics’ Week, “Zalava” is set in 1978 in a small village called Zalava”, where the villagers claim that a demon is among them.

A young sergeant who investigates the claim crosses paths with an exorcist attempting to evict the demon from the village. He arrests the exorcist on a charge of fraud, but suddenly finds himself stuck in a cursed house with his lover. The villagers, who believe they are both possessed by the demon, decide to kill them.

The film brought Arsalan Amiri the award for best director at the 8th Duhok International Film Festival in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

“Zalava” has been picked to be screened in the Metal Noir section of the Bucheon festival.

Directed by Milad Nasim-Sobhan, the short film “Don’t Breathe” will be showcased in the XL category.

To exert more tyranny and suppression, the ruling power has done something to its dissenters that they exhale smoke when they breathe, and the agents must take into custody such people wherever they find them. Unaware of the law, a man meets one of the dissidents and it changes the course of his life, until he decides to immigrate to a better land with the dissident for a better life. 

The film won the Remi Bronze Award in the Fantasy section of the 55th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival.

English director Alex Garland’s “Men” will open the festival on July 7 at the Bucheon City Hall.

Korean filmmaker Jung Bum-shik’s “New Normal” will be the closing film of the event running for eleven days.

Monica Garcia, the general manager of the Foundation Sitges - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, Japanese director Harada Masato, English journalist Nick James, Filmmakers R&K CEO Kang Hyejung and Korean model and actress Sim Hyejin are members of the jury for the official competition.

Launched in 1997, the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival is the representative cultural festival of Bucheon, a UNESCO creative city of literature. 

Works by master filmmakers such as Peter Jackson, Christopher Nolan, Darren Aronofsky, Guillermo del Toro, Jang Joonhwan and Na Hongin have been screened and introduced at the event.

Photo: “Zalava” by Arsalan Amiri.

MMS/YAW