Zalava

The performances of Navid Pourfaraj and Pouria Rahimi Sam garnered critical acclaim and both received Crystal Simorgh nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, with Rahimi Sam winning.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10.

Marking a confident, cinema-literate feature debut for helmer and co-writer Arsalan Amiri, a member of the Iranian Kurdish minority, the film puts a new spin on genre conventions. But perhaps its biggest asset is the performance of tall, toned and impressively mustached star Navid Pourfaraj as the sergeant of a nearby gendarmerie, whose attempts to lay down the law with the trigger-happy residents of Zalava result in unintended consequences.

— Variety / Alissa Simon[5]

Amiri has made the village of the film with precise mezzanine, costume design, accent form and behavior and has worked properly on these things.

— Haft / Massoud Farasati[6]