A welcome character study about a rebellious teenage girl in Iran.

| Original Score: B+ | Jul 13, 2021

There's an earthy, realistic tone to this drama, which explores adolescent independence through the eyes of a teenage girl in Iran.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 27, 2020

Though the social politics can be hard to follow, Jabbari's performance is unforgettable, with hurt and rage emanating from her and multiplying as every slight chips away at Ava's sanity.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 24, 2020

You might still think the film loads itself with more misery than is good for it... but there are lots of perceptive, knotty moments, and Mahour Jabbari is excellent in the title role.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 24, 2020

There's a jagged emotional authenticity scored into the film like initials carved into a desk.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 22, 2020

Foroughi - yet another first timer - has made an auspicious and perceptive film about that real barriers facing the young and the steely defiance required to start pushing past them.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 21, 2020

Ava is a singular vision marking Foroughi as a talent to watch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 21, 2020

Foroughi delivers a strong debut with a perfectly pitched performance from Mahour Jabbari.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 20, 2020

Ava is made with superb technique and real style.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2020

An assured debut

| Aug 17, 2020

Beautifully observed, Sadaf Foroughi's feature début explores the way that, even in societies explicitly controlled by men, it's often women who enforce social rules and seek to control one another's behaviour.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 21, 2018

The tension is high, and the stakes are kept punishingly human.

| Original Score: B+ | Nov 3, 2018

All in all, Ava is an accomplished work that marks bright futures for all its cast and crew, particularly writer-director Sadaf Foroughi and star Mahour Jabbari.

| Original Score: B+ | Oct 23, 2018

Sympathetic to even the most misguided characters before her lens, the filmmaker's desire to see what makes people tick reveals a big heart and in "Ava," it never stops beating.

| Oct 23, 2018

Foroughi's visual storytelling is impressive.

| Sep 25, 2018

Kudos are also in order for Jabbari, who does most of the heavy lifting on screen and handles the emotionally draining subject matter in confident, captivating fashion.

| Aug 22, 2018

Foroughi's shrewd filmmaking uses the frame to advantage: the tightening of Ava's constraints is matched by the tightening of the mise en scène around her.

| Aug 16, 2018

While the film can be taken to an extent as a critique of Iran's strictly regimented societal norms, it's even more a devastating dissection of parent-child dysfunctions that know no national borders.

| Jul 16, 2018

[Sadaf] Foroughi is definitely one to watch.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 14, 2018

Foroughi has a great ear for dialogue, and the back-and-forth between husband and wife or mother and daughter feels completely natural.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 14, 2018