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Holy Spider
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Wikipedia article
'Holy Spider' is a 2022 internationally co-produced Persian-language crime thriller film directed by Ali Abbasi. Based on the true story of Saeed Hanaei, a serial killer who targeted sex workers and killed 16 women from 2000 to 2001 in Mashhad, Iran, the film depicts a fictional female journalist investigating a serial killer.
The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered on 22 May 2022. Zar Amir Ebrahimi won the festival's Best Actress Award.
Plot
Cast
* Mehdi Bajestani as Saeed
* Zar Amir Ebrahimi as Rahimi
* Arash Ashtiani as Sharifi
* Forouzan Jamshidnejad as Fatima
* Alice Rahimi as Somayeh
* Sina Parvaneh as Rostami
* Sara Fazilat as Zinab
* Firouz Agheli as Haji
* Nima Akbarpour as Judge
* Mesbah Taleb as Ali
Production
Abbasi was a student in Tehran when the 200001 murders took place and was baffled by the conservative response that heralded Hanaei as a hero, and by how long it took for police to capture him. Abbasi began writing versions of the film shortly after seeing Hanaei interviewed in Maziar Bahari's 2002 documentary . Abbasi said, "In a really strange way, I felt sympathy for the guy, really against my own will. I think there was a psychotic element to the pleasure-seeking aspect of his murders, the twisted sexuality and whatnot, but there was also this strange innocence about him. It was more about how a society creates a serial killer." Initial drafts followed the events more faithfully, but Abbasi eventually deviated from them and invented the character of a female journalist, as he felt the film should focus not only on the killer but on misogyny. Abbasi said:
My intention was not to make a serial killer movie. I wanted to make a movie about a serial killer society. It is about the deep-rooted misogyny within Iranian society, which is not specifically religious or political but cultural. ... Instead of making another movie about different ways a man can kill and mutilate women, we want to underline the complexity of the issue and the stakes on different sides, especially on behalf of the victims.
The development of the film officially started in 2016, which was then boosted by the success of Abbasi's 2018 'Border'. The filmmakers initially tried to shoot in Iran, but this was abandoned by 2019. A plan was made to shoot in Jordan in early 2020, which had to be pushed back several times because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, in late 2020, they decided to move the production to Turkey, where COVID restrictions were looser, but they were stalled by Turkish authorities. Abbasi has said this was because the Iranian government interfered. The production then went back to Jordan, where filming finally commenced in May 2021 and lasted 35 days.
Abbasi said Bajestani was taking an enormous risk by playing the killer. Ebrahimi was initially involved in the film only as a casting director, but was cast as the journalist after an actor dropped out of the role.
Release
In May 2022, Utopia acquired North American rights to the film. Mubi acquired the film for the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, and Malaysia.
Reception
's performance garnered widespread critical acclaim and winning her Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89%, based on 18 reviews, and an average rating of 7.60/10. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Iranian government
On 29 May 2022, the Cinema Organization of Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance issued a statement condemning the Cannes festival for awarding the film the Best Actress award, calling it "an insulting and politically-motivated move". The statement compared the film to 'The Satanic Verses' and said it "has insulted the beliefs of millions of Muslims and the huge Shiite population of the world".On 1 June 2022, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili said Iran "formally protested to the French government through the foreign ministry". He also said, "If persons from inside Iran are involved with the film 'Holy Spider', they will surely receive punishment from the Cinema Organization of Iran."
Director of 'Killer Spider'
Ebrahim Irajzad, the director of 'Killer Spider', a 2020 Iranian film based on the same subject, accused Abbasi of plagiarism and circumventing Iranian censorship in order to make the film sooner, claiming he could have shot it in Iran had he been prepared to wait for government approval like Irajzad had to.Accolades
References
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