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

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 22, 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

Foroughi's visual storytelling is impressive.

| Sep 25, 2018

Ava is a layered, complex character, and one that anyone who was ever a teenager can identify with.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 13, 2018

Foroughi finds the balance in an overwrought situation.

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 27, 2018

While Ava may not reach the rousing heights of the similarly-themed titles like Wadjda and Mustang, it certainly puts its sharp-eyed filmmaker Foroughi on the cinematic map.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 27, 2018

At its most gripping, Ava communicates...familiar adolescent agonies through formal detail that makes them smolder anew.

| Apr 26, 2018

Lurching relentlessly from one conflict to another, the movie distills its emotions - and maintains its momentum - in conversations of remarkably controlled intensity.

| Apr 26, 2018

The film's constant cruelty is so inescapable that it starts to feel unfair not only to the protagonist, but to Iran itself.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 28, 2018