News

Amir Zargara is an Iranian-Canadian (Bipoc) writer/director, whose unique perspective is shaped by the cultural mosaic of Iran and Canada. His journey, characterized by the resilience of an immigrant and the challenges of living with a stutter, deeply influences his approach to filmmaking. Amir began his filmmaking journey with “Become The Wounded” in 2021. Since then, he has directed several shorts, that he hopes to build his feature film career on. His films delve into the moral complexities faced by individuals, focusing on the gray areas of human character and advocating for empathy over judgment. “A Good Day Will Come” was inspired by the tragic story of Navid Afkari, an Iranian wrestler unjustly executed in 2020 during a time of widespread unrest and human rights abuses in Iran, and is has recently qualified for the 2025 Oscars.

A Good Day Will Come review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative

The movie begins with Arash,...

The whole world is probably going through one of the most politically volatile times in the history of humankind. Several countries are openly committing genocide while giving speeches about their right to defend themselves or some other nonsensical justification. The people of many countries are starving because their resources are being pushed towards extinction by capitalist villains masquerading as the leaders of the future. Racism, misogyny, and religious bigotry are at such an all-time high that electoral promises are being made based on promoting such heinous practices, and the sad thing is that the common folk have become radicalized enough to choose the most obnoxious individual as their prime minister or president so that they can live out their sadist fantasies in real time. However, if you talk against all this clearly inhumane stuff through art, sports, silent protests, or on your family WhatsApp group, you are told to not “make things political.

What ought to become of society when a member or two, take it upon themselves to cleanse society of all they consider filth, for the sake of the greater good? For the sake of God and the lost lives of martyrs? What is most likely to happen when that member/members consider it their life’s purpose to not just feed their God Complex but also, to channel their inner messiahs, to save the holy land and the ‘believers’? When they start considering it beyond merely the purpose of their lives but strictly as their duty; what happens to the people that are forced to succumb to such depravity? ‘If not me then who’ plays on their minds over and over again.

When the need for sustenance becomes the very reason for the missed opportunity to allow oneself that one extra breath to life, what is one supposed to do?...

WestEnd Films and Keshet Studios have unveiled a first look at “Golda” director Guy Nattiv and “Holy Spider” star Zar Amir-Ebrahimi’s political thriller “Judo.”

The image, which features Amir-Ebrahimi (left) and Arienne Mandi (right), follows an Iranian female judoka and her coach as they face life-changing decisions during the Judo World Championships.

“Judo” (working title) is co-directed by Nattiv and Amir-Ebrahimi. It is co-written by Nattiv and Elham Erfani (“The Case of Sacrifice”). The project is the first feature film to be co-directed by an Iranian and an Israeli filmmaker, during a time when the Iranian government still criminalizes any contact with Israelis, and state violence against women is amplified.

Other cast members include Jaime Ray Newman (“Dopesick”), Nadine Marshall (“The Silent Twin”), Mehdi Bajestani (“Holy Spider”), Lirr Katz and Ash Goldeh.

Here’s an official synopsis for the project: “Judo” is a thrilling portrait of Iranian female judoka...

The primary purpose of this roundup is to highlight films new to streaming platforms that could potentially contend for awards. But some weekends there are no new releases that could credibly be considered awards contenders. This is one of those weeks. But we don’t take the week off. Instead, we highlight the best of what’s new on streaming, whether it’s a contender or not. This week’s picks include a notable new release and three older Oscar contenders.

The contender to watch this week: “Fatal Attraction”

Before the Paramount+ adaptation starring Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson premieres at the end of April, revisit this classic for a dose of bunny-boiling electricity. “Fatal Attraction” was the third-highest-grossing release of 1987, eventually earning six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. People have been arguing about the movie’s messages ever since, but it’s hard to find performances as invigorating as...

Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider is now showing exclusively on Mubi in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, and many other countries.Holy Spider.In Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider, the holy city of Mashhad—perched upon the venerated shrine of Imam Reza—bears a haunting: from 2000 to 2001, a spate of murders shattered any semblance of divinity there. As the film retraces these real-world horrors, complete with all the requisite cinematic embellishments, it does not take long to reveal Saeed Hanaei (Mehdi Bajestani), the devout Muslim family man behind the "spider killings," so named for the way he would lure his victims to the home he shared with his unsuspecting wife and children. By the time steely-eyed journalist Arezoo Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) arrives to investigate, a pattern has emerged: Saeed exclusively targets sex workers and addicts, coercing the desperate women onto the back of his motorcycle, before strangling them with their...

‘All Quiet’ leads the way with 12 nominations, followed by Ilker Catak’s The Teachers’ Lounge with seven.

Edward Berger’s Bafta and Oscar award-winner All Quiet On The Western Front has garnered 12 nominations for this year’s German Film Awards (aka Lolas), including for best feature film, best direction, best lead actor (Felix Kammerer), and best cinematography.

Ilker Catak’s The Teachers’ Lounge, which premiered in the Berlinale’s Panorama section last month, received seven nominations, including best feature film, best direction, best screenplay and best lead actress (Leonie Benesch), while Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider has received four nominations for best feature film,...

To no one’s surprise, Edward Berger’s epic WWI drama All Quiet on the Western Front is the front runner for this year’s German film awards. The Netflix feature, which picked up nine Oscar nominations and won four — both records for a German movie — received 12 nominations on Friday for Germany’s top cinema honor, known as the Lola.

The film, the first German-language adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque classic 1929 anti-war novel, is the clear favorite going into this year’s Lolas. In addition to the Oscar sweep — the film won best international feature, best cinematography, best production design, and best score at this year’s Academy Awards — All Quiet on the Western Front dominated the 2023 Baftas, taking seven trophies, including for best film and best director.

All Quiet was nominated in every Lola category it qualified for, including best film, best director for Berger, and best actor...

Kristen Stewart joined Iranian filmmakers in a demonstration showing solidarity for Iran’s “Women, Life, Freedom” protests on the red carpet of the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday.

Stewart is attending the festival this year as the president of its international jury.

Holy Spider actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi, The Siren director Sepideh Farsi and actress Golshifteh Farahani, who is a member of Stewart’s international jury, were among more than 50 Iranian professionals participating in the act of solidarity.

Festival co-chiefs Carlo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek also joined the demonstration to flank Stewart in the photo-call.

The demonstration followed news that the popular protests – sparked by the killing in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September – had flared up in several cities across Iran overnight.

Earlier on Saturday, Ebrahimi and Farsi participated in a Berlinale-hosted panel discussion on the role of cinema and art in the ongoing popular revolution.

Tehran-born actress Ebrahimi,...

Ebrahimi also stars in the film as the coach to an Iranian female judoka.

London-based WestEnd Films has acquired international rights to political thriller Untitled Judo which is co-directed by Holy Spider star Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Golda director Guy Nattiv. WestEnd is launching sales at EFM.

Ebrahimi also stars in the film as the coach to an Iranian female judoka who is ordered by the Islamic Republic to fake an injury and lose at the Judo World Championships. The rest of the cast includes Arienne Mandi, Jaime Ray Newman, Nadine Marshall and fellow Holy Spider star Mehdi Bajestani.

Untitled...

WestEnd Films has acquired worldwide rights to Keshet Studios’ political thriller “Untitled Judo” and will introduce it to buyers at Berlin’s European Film Market (EFM).

The film, currently in post-production, is co-directed by Guy Nattiv (Oscar winner for short “Skin”) and Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Cannes best actress winner for “Holy Spider,” and co-written by Elham Erfani (“The Case of Sacrifice”).

It features Arienne Mandi (“The L Word: Generation Q”) and Amir Ebrahimi in the lead roles, alongside Jaime Ray Newman (“Dopesick”), Nadine Marshall (“The Silent Twins”) and Mehdi Bajestani (“Holy Spider”).

The film follows Iranian female judoka Leila (Mandi) and her coach Maryam (Ebrahimi), who travel to the Judo World Championship, intent on bringing home Iran’s first gold medal. Midway through the competition, they receive an ultimatum from the Islamic Republic ordering Leila to fake an injury and lose. With her own and her family’s freedom at stake,...

Guy Nattiv and Zar Amir Ebrahimi are to make history by becoming the first Israeli and Iranian filmmakers to co-direct a feature.

Unveiled at a time when the Iranian government still criminalizes any contact with Israelis and state violence against women is amplified, political thriller Untitled Judo is a collaboration aimed at shining a spotlight on the regime currently governing Iran.

The film — backed by Israel’s Keshat Studios and launched in Berlin by WestEnd Films, which has worldwide rights — follows an Iranian female judoka and her coach as they face life-changing decisions during the Judo World Championships. Nattiv — already in Berlin with his Helen Mirren-starring Golda Meir biopic Golda — will co-direct Untitled Judo alongside Holy Spider lead actress Ebrahimi (who will also star) from a script co-written by Elham Erfani.

Untitled Judo is a portrait of Iranian female judoka Leila (played by The L Word: Generation Q‘s Arienne Mandi...

WestEnd Films has acquired world rights to Untitled Judo, a political thriller co-directed by Guy Nattiv and actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi (Holy Spider).

The film is currently in post-production. WestEnd Films will launch sales at this year’s European Film Market.

The pic is the first feature film to be co-directed by an Iranian and an Israeli filmmaker and follows an Iranian female judoka and her coach as they face life-changing decisions during the Judo World Championships. Elham Erfani (The Case of Sacrifice) is a co-writer on the project.

Arienne Mandi (The L Word: Generation Q) and co-director Zar Amir Ebrahimi star in the lead roles, alongside Jaime Ray Newman, Nadine Marshall and Mehdi Bajestani (Holy Spider).

The full synopsis reads: Untitled Judo is a thrilling portrait of Iranian female judoka Leila (Mandi) and her coach Maryam (Ebrahimi), who...

The horror genre has always been scrutinized for its relationship with onscreen violence, but movies about serial killers, especially real ones, merit extra attention. These anomalous criminals have an outsized presence in fiction, and indeed in the popular imagination. Sometimes they are deployed as compelling, formidable villains and nothing more, on par with any other horror monster. The best serial killer stories, though, are more interrogative — of the institutional failures that create and enable them, the social forces that mythologize them at the expense of their victims, and the obsession that drives their pursuers.

Place undue focus on the violent acts, or on the killers themselves, and a film risks becoming part of the problem. This is the careful line that Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider walks; it pushes so close to the edge that, to some, it may earn such criticism. But, in the estimation of this critic, the...

A whole new year has begun – and it’s going to be a belter for brand new movies. 2023 brings with it all kinds of cinematic treats to look forward to – epic blockbusters, long-awaited returns from auteur directors, eye-popping animation, soul-stirring dramas, major awards contenders, and schlocky blasts that you won’t want to miss on the big screen. It’s going to be the year of Indiana Jones’ comeback, of fresh films from both Spielberg_ – a film about a bear, high on cocaine. Cinema is alive and well!

Empire’s epic 2023 preview is your guide to the best films hitting UK screens in the next 12 months – from Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny, to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie, to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, and beyond. Prepare for eye-popping horror, adrenaline-pumping action, heartwarming romance, dazzling sci-fi and much more. See you at the movies, everyone!

January 13th:

M...

Other winners include Emily, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed; Swedish Film Institute unveils new talent Wild Card prizes.

Ali Abbasi’s Iran-set serial killer drama Holy Spider won the Bronze Horse for best film at the 2022 Stockholm International Film Festival.

The film’s lead actor Mehdi Bajestani won best actor for playing Saeed Hanaei, the real serial killer who killed sex workers in Mashhad in 2000 and 2001.

The jury said Holy Spider is “a punch in the gut for systematic belief systems that oppress rather than support. An eye opener and a most emotional cinematic experience that awakens internal revolutions in us.

The big winner at the Stockholm International Film Festival 2022 was Holy Spider, directed by Swedish-Danish-Iranian Ali Abbasi.

Complete list of winners below

The film won the Bronze Horse for Best Film, while lead actor Mehdi Bajestani was named Best Male Actor for his role as serial killer Saeed Hanaei. The film was based on the true story of the so-called ‘Spider-Killer’ who targeted sex workers and killed 16 women from 2000 to 2001 in Mashhad, Iran. The film depicts a fictional female journalist investigating the crimes.

In presenting Abbasi with his award, the jury said of Holy Spider:

“A groundbreaking film that is done not only with enormous courage but with mastery that leaves us breathless; our insides both speechless and wanting to cream. A punch in the gut for systematic belief systems that oppress rather than support. An eye opener and a most emotional cinematic experience that awakens internal revolutions in us.

“This is a multi-layered, complex story,” explains writer and director Ali Abbasi while discussing his film “Holy Spider,” Denmark’s entry for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards. “On the superficial level you’re dealing with someone who killed 16 people in a year. The scope of it alone is remarkable and scary, and in a strange way also fascinating. Then there is the whole sociopolitical aspect around it. This being set in Iran in the very religious city of Mashhad. This religious conservatism meets suppressed sexuality. In this holy city, there is widespread prostitution.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

“Holy Spider” is inspired by the true story of Saeed Hanaei (played by Mehdi Bajestani), a serial killer who targets sex workers in Iran. Zar Amir Ebrahimi plays Rahimi, a female journalist facing a misogynistic society as she tries to hunt him down. Ebrahimi won Best Actress at...

“It feels like justice, and hope, and courage,” reveals “Holy Spider” star Zar Amir-Ebrahimi when asked about her Best Actress win at the Cannes Film Festival in May. “Our work was a message of justice and courage for me and for many others. Not only other actors, but everyone around me. We were very touched.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

“Holy Spider” is inspired by the true story of Saeed Hanaei (played by Mehdi Bajestani), a serial killer who targets sex workers in Iran. Ebrahimi plays Rahimi, a female journalist facing a misogynistic society as she tries to hunt him down. In addition to her own Best Actress triumph, the film was nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or and is Denmark’s entry for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards.

See dozens of interviews with 2023 awards contenders

Ebrahimi revealed she never even intended to be in the movie.

How should we balance a movie’s aims and execution, when the two very evidently diverge? In dramatizing the true story of early-aughts serial killer Saeed Hanaei (Mehdi Bajestani), who murdered 16 sex workers, director Ali Abbasi (“Border”) claims that his intention “was not to make a serial killer movie.” As he says in the film’s press notes, “I wanted to make a movie about a serial-killer society. Misogyny everywhere breeds through the habits of people.”

Among these habits, alas, is the knee-jerk objectification and exploitation of women, a practice in which “Holy Spider” repeatedly engages. Within minutes, Saeed’s first victim is shot gratuitously nude; her murder and the subsequent ones that follow are so explicitly violent that Abbasi’s nobly stated goals start to reflect the depressing hypocrisy of his subject.

What’s equally dispiriting is that there were so many other ways to make the very cultural critique to which Abbasi,...

Holy Spider Utopia Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten Director: Ali Abbasi Screenwriter: Ali Abbasi, Afrshin Kamran Bahrami Cast: Mehdi Bajestani, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Arash Ashtiani, Forouzan Jamshidnejad, Alice Rahimi Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 9/21/22 Opens: October 28, 2022 In discussions about former president Donald Trump, I have […]

The post Holy Spider Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Holy Spider Trailer — Ali Abbasi‘s Holy Spider (2022) movie trailer has been released by Utopia. The Holy Spider trailer stars Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Mehdi Bajestani. Crew Ali Abbasi and Afshin Kamran Bahrami wrote the screenplay for Holy Spider. Name created the music for the film. Name crafted the cinematography for the film. Plot Synopsis Holy [...]

Continue reading: Holy Spider (2022) Movie Trailer: Journalist Zar Amir Ebrahimi Investigates a Serial Killer in Iran...

"I did it all for God… I'm not finished yet." Now that's scary. Utopia has revealed the official US trailer for an acclaimed, award-winning indie film made in Iran titled Holy Spider, which originally premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. It won Best Actress there for star Zar Amir Ebrahimi - who really is tremendous in this one. It's the next film from an Iranian-Danish filmmaker named Ali Abbasi, who earned acclaim for his excellent Swedish troll film Border. This film is about a journalist who travels deep into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called "Spider Killer", who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners. Based on a true story, which is especially freaky. Holy Spider stars Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Mehdi Bajestani. I wrote in my Cannes review: "it's brutally realistic,...

Inspired by a terrifying true story, “Holy Spider” untangles the web of a serial killer in Iran.

Cannes Best Actress award winner Zar Amir Ebrahimi stars as a journalist who travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer who believes he is doing the work of God, cleansing the streets of sinners by murdering sex workers. Per an official synopsis, as the body count mounts and Rahimi draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain as the “Spider Killer” (Mehdi Bajestani) is embraced by many as a hero. But the killer’s religious quest to “cleanse” Mashhad of “immoral and corrupt” street prostitutes turns into a desperate attempt to foster public interest in his divine mission.

“Holy Spider” is based on the horrific true story of serial killer Saeed Hanaei, who was captured in 2001 after murdering 16 women. Acclaimed writer...

Zar Amir Ebrahimi (also known as Zahra) should be basking in the glow of her best actress win at Cannes for “Holy Spider.” Instead, she’s in a reflective mood when she sits down with Variety for a Zoom interview, recounting the tumultuous 16 years that culminated with earning a prominent role in one of the best-reviewed movies of 2022.

But before the red carpets and splashy premieres, this Iranian actress’s career was derailed and her personal life was upended following the release of a sex tape. As punishment, she faced possible stoning and lashing in her native country. Despite all that she endured, Ebrahimi has persevered and Hollywood is taking notice.

Ironically, Ebrahimi was never supposed to appear in “Holy Spider.”

She signed on to be the casting director for director Ali Abbasi as he put together the ensemble for “Holy Spider,” which tells the true story of Saeed Hanaei,...

Click here to read the full article.

This is the third of three dispatches from the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. You can read the first here and the second here.

As always, the final days of the fest were considerably lower-key than those before them, with much of the press having departed and most of the buzzy films having screened. The homestretch, however, is when lower-profile gems are often discovered, as I was reminded by a few screenings.

The world premiere of the documentary feature Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (still seeking U.S. distribution), Evgeny Afineevsky’s follow-up to his 2015 Oscar-nominated Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, proved to be the definitive portrait, thus far, of the ongoing Russian atrocities — and remarkable resistance to them — in Ukraine. Afineevsky, who was born in Russia, made the entire film in the last six months, spending a chunk of...

Any best picture lineup of any industry organization that does not include A24’s “Close,” Utopia’s “Holy Spider” and the doc “Sr.,” which is still seeking a distributor, shall be declared null and void…at least in my mind.

In Telluride, all three films played like gangbusters. “Holy Spider,” which premiered at Cannes and won best actress for Zar Amir Ebrahimi, is looking likely to be Denmark’s submission for international feature. Based on the true story of Saeed Hanaei (played by Mehdi Bajestani), a serial killer who targeted sex workers and killed 16 women from 2000 to 2001 in Mashhad, Iran, the film tells a fictional account of a female journalist (Ebrahimi) who investigates the case.

The suspense thriller evokes “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991) and “Dexter,” particularly the show’s sublime fourth, Trinity Killer-focused season. Both lead actors are worthy of Academy attention, and writer and director Ali Abbasi, who helmed the 2018 hit “Border,...

Streamer and distributor Mubi has acquired Ali Abbasi’s Cannes Film Festival competition title “Holy Spider” for the U.K., Ireland, Latin America (excluding Mexico) and Malaysia.

The film will be released theatrically followed by an exclusive Mubi streaming release.

The film follows family man Saeed as he embarks on his own religious quest — to “cleanse” the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of immoral and corrupt street prostitutes. After murdering several women, he grows ever more desperate about the lack of public interest in his divine mission.

It stars Mehdi Bajestani, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Arash Ashtiani, Forouzan Jamshidnejad, Alice Rahimi, Sara Fazilat and Sina Parvaneh.

The Variety review of the film praised it for its “laudable instinct for humanizing and dimensionalizing the victims and their families, who are poignantly depicted despite the brevity of their screen time.”

The film has been generating plenty of heat at Cannes. Feminist protestors stormed...

Mubi has acquired rights to Cannes hit Holy Spider for the UK, Ireland, LatAm and Malaysia.

Danish-Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi’s feature, which had its World Premiere in the Main Competition and has been one of the fest’s buzziest titles, follows the true story of family man Saeed, who embarked on a religious quest to “cleanse” the Iranian city of Mashhad of immoral prostitutes.

He is tracked down by a spiky young journalist, desperate to get to the truth.

Director Abbasi is a well respected auteur and his previous feature, Border, won the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes 2018.

Mubi will take rights to the key territories of the UK, Ireland, LatAm and Malaysia, with Utopia having taken U.S. rights several days ago. Wild Bunch International is handling international sales and negotiated the deal with Mubi, which has also picked up Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave and...

The 2022 Cannes Film Festival is nearing its conclusion, and soon the jury will be selecting awards for this year’s impressive, albeit quieter, slate of films. After last year’s “Titane” from Julia Ducournau made history as the first female-directed film to fully win the Palme d’Or (Jane Campion’s “The Piano” tied with “Farewell My Concubine” in 1993), at this point in the festival, it doesn’t seem likely that a woman-directed project will walk away with it this year.

“Forever Young” by French-Italian director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi seems to be the only film directed by a woman that has so far invoked any passion for bringing it to the finish line. Claire Denis’ “Stars at Noon,” Kelly Reichardt’s “Showing Up,” Leonor Serraille’s “Mother and Son” and Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen’s “Eight Mountains” are the other titles directed by women among the 21 contending features.

Guillermo del Toro on Tuesday had some bleak words about the state of the movies in the first part of a Cannes symposium about the future of cinema. But in part two of that conversation, the “Nightmare Alley” filmmaker had a much more optimistic message and explained why today’s directors can’t be afraid of how the movies are changing.

Speaking on a panel with other directors including Rebecca Zlotowski, Abderrahmane Sissako, Abel Ferrara, Lynne Ramsay, Laurent Cantet, Pawel Pawlikowski, Joachim Lafosse and even a surprise appearance from Nicolas Winding Refn, del Toro explained that as filmmakers, we “can’t be shy about the platforms,” referring to the algorithms and new methods that are dictating the way the movies are being made today. “We want to break the machine from the inside, show us what we can do with them. We are troublemakers, rebels, we want to destroy the machine,...

“Holy Spider,” Ali Abbasi’s Iranian thriller that has earned rave reviews after premiering at Cannes in the main competition on Sunday, has had its North American rights acquired by Utopia, the U.S. distributor and sales company owned by Robert Schwartzman and Cole Harper.

The film stars actors Mehdi Bajestani and Zar Amir Ebrahimi. And Abbasi, who is an Iranian-Swedish director known for the troll movie and Un Certain Regard winner “Border,” has described “Holy Spider” as a “Persian Noir.” The movie shocked Cannes audiences for its frank discussions about gender in Iran but also its graphic violence and male and female nudity. At the same time, it has emerged as an early frontrunner for the Palme d’Or.

In “Holy Spider,” female journalist Rahimi (Ebrahimi) travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer (Bajestani) who believes he is doing the work of God,...

Danish-Iranian director Ali Abbasi’s boundary-pushing serial killer thriller “Holy Spider has been acquired by U.S. sales and distribution company Utopia for North America.

Based on a real Iranian crime case, “Holy Spider” – which made a major splash when it premiered in the Cannes competition on Sunday – is about a family man named Saeed (Mehdi Bajestani) who becomes a serial killer as he embarks on his own religious quest to “cleanse” the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of street prostitutes.

Pic chronicles a killing spree in the streets of Mashhad, where 16 prostitutes were found dead from 2000 to 2001. A local journalist, Rahimi (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi), is trying to crack the case as she grows frustrated by the police’s apathy toward finding the murderer. But in one of many twists in this drama, the identity of the serial killer is revealed early on — he’s a war veteran, a seemingly normal...

Exclusive: Utopia has finalized its North American deal for Cannes Competition pic Holy Spider, the noir thriller from Danish-Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi. We told you the deal was all but there a couple of days ago.

Based on a horrific true story, the film follows female journalist Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) who travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer (Mehdi Bajestani) who believes he is doing the work of God, cleansing the streets of sinners by murdering sex workers. As the body count mounts, and Rahimi draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain as the ‘Spider Killer’ is embraced by many as a hero.

The Persian-language movie has been one of the surprises of Cannes. Not just for its shock value, but also due to its North American buyer: New York indie sales and distribution firm Utopia.

Ali Abbasi’s Border, an adaptation of a short story by Let the Right One In author John Ajvide Lindqvist, put its director on the map as one fluent in a dark genre idiom, and possessing transnational potential capable of enticing festivals and more commercially oriented fields. But Holy Spider returns him to the country of his birth with an even more direct statement on prejudice and repulsion than Border, and also, maybe, as much of a determination to upset and freak people out.

It’s based on a fascinating real-life case that would easily be fodder for more conventional “true crime” depictions in the podcast or TV arenas. In 2001, the film’s subject, Saeed Hanaei, embarked on a killing spree of 16 female sex workers in the holy city of Mashhad, Iran. His motive chimed directly with Iran’s cultural attitudes towards women: his avowed motivation was to wage a...

A drastic departure from his prior films “Border” and “Shelley,” Ali Abbasi’s newest film, “Holy Spider,” draws inspiration from the 2000-2001 crimes and subsequent trial of Saeed Hanaei (played here by Mehdi Bajestani), a war veteran-turned-serial killer in the Iranian city of Mashhad who murdered 16 sex workers, claiming that he was cleansing the holy city of sinners and corruption in the name of Islam.

Continue reading ‘Holy Spider’ Review: Ali Abbasi’s Iranian True Crime Procedural Underwhelms [Cannes] at The Playlist.

The Un Certain Regard section winner with his second film for the 2018 programme with Border, Ali Abbasi makes his first journey into the competition remarkably with only his third feature. The Tehran born Swedish filmmaker turns his focus on his homeland with Holy Spider. Starring Mehdi Bajestani playing the part of a psychopath and Zar Amir Ebrahimi playing a journalist who is all in and she places herself in danger on more than one occasion — a fair amount of what will be written up on the film is the difficult to watch first act, but it’s the loaded discourse on Iranian society that is inescapably mind blowing.…...

The Cannes Film Festival’s iconic red carpet played host to a rare form of protest on Sunday, as a feminist collective unleashed smoke bombs and unrolled a list of murdered women just before the world premiere of Ali Abbasi’s serial-killer drama “Holy Spider.” And if the demonstration’s cause was only too just, its context was all too uncommon, since these protesters were seemingly there to support, not oppose, Abbasi’s violent and disturbing film.

To follow up his Un Certain Regard-winning “Border,” the Iran-born Denmark-based director has burrowed into a chilling bit of true-crime from his native country, reimagining the 2001 case of a religious fanatic who slaughtered 16 young women and using that premise to explore systemic misogyny writ large. He does so by turning the murder thriller upside down, telling a story where the killer’s identify is never in doubt and his intentions are always crystal clear,...

“Holy Spider,” a gritty drama about a real-life Iranian serial killer, stunned the Cannes Film Festival at its premiere on Sunday afternoon, earning a thunderous seven-minute standing ovation and bringing a jolt of electricity to what’s been a sleepy festival so far.

The film, from Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi (“Border”), chronicles a killing spree in the streets of the religious city of Mashhad, where 16 prostitutes were found dead from 2000 to 2001. A local journalist, Rahimi (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi), is trying to crack the case as she grows frustrated by the police’s apathy toward finding the murderer. But in one of many twists in this drama, the identity of the serial killer is revealed early on — he’s a war veteran named Saeed (Mehdi Bajestani), a seemingly normal family man who spends his nights picking up women on his motorcycle and brutally strangling them in his home as a religious cleansing ritual.

It is hard to watch the brutalization of women on screen, especially when you know it is a re-creation of an actual crime. But it is harder still — rightly, valuably so — if you’ve been made to notice the way this woman’s lipstick is smeared over her cracked lips, if you’ve seen the old bruises that mottle that woman’s body beneath her chador, or watched her carefully stash her flats in a crinkled plastic bag as she switches into heels in a dingy bathroom. Saeed Hanaei, the real-life serial killer reimagined in Ali Abbasi’s tense and convincing procedural, believed that God was behind his grand mission to rid his city of prostitutes. But in “Holy Spider,” the devil is in those devastating details.

Hanaei, here portrayed with brave understatement by affable Iranian actor Mehdi Bajestani, was a builder, a family man, a resident of Iran’s...

Sometimes it hardly matters whether we know a story is based on truth or not. Watching Ali Abbasi’s thunderously damning Holy Spider, on the other hand, it drives a wedge into your mind knowing that a serial killer really did terrorize the Iranian holy city of Mashhad in the early 2000s, that he killed 16 street prostitutes, that there were police who conspired to help him escape and that there were people in Iran — a lot of people, he keeps assuring his family — who were on the murderer’s side. He was doing God’s work.

Swedish-Iranian director Ali Abbasi’s last film was the unclassifiable Border, a fable about outcasts and aliens in which an unfortunately grotesque Swedish customs official turns out to be a troll. Border won the prize for the best film in Cannes sidebar section Un Certain Regard in 2018. Holy Spider is in the festival competition...

Ali Abbasi’s “Holy Spider” is sure to be compared to any number of modern serial killer movies, but its true-crime subject — an Iranian construction worker who strangled at least 16 sex workers in Masshad as part of his misogynistic crusade to “cleanse the city of corruption” — wasn’t exactly in the same league as the Zodiac or the nightstalker from “Memories of Murder.” On the contrary, Saeed Hanaei couldn’t have been much clumsier about the finer points of his mission.

A married father of three who dumped all of his victims at the same place after suffocating many of them in the living room of his family’s house, Hanaei was an amateur to the core. The only reason he was able to keep up the slaughter for so long is that nobody was particularly determined to catch him. In a holy city home to both the world’s...

A group of feminist protestors staged a dramatic scene at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, releasing plumes of smoke from handheld devices and displaying a long banner for the global press.

At the premiere of “Holy Spider,” director Ali Abbasi’s female-centered thriller, roughly 12 women in formal wear gathered on the famed stairs of the Palais with raised fists — filling the space with thick black smoke and holding a scroll with a list of 129 women’s names. The list, according to the group, highlights “129 feminicides in France since the last Cannes festival.” Feminicide is the intentional killing of women because they are female.

Security seemed unfazed by the event, allowing the protestors to be filmed and photographed. One insider close to the production said the protest was not a coordinated stunt to promote the film, about a journalist who travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate...