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Holy Spider

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Holy Spider
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAli Abbasi
Written by
  • Ali Abbasi
  • Afshin Kamran Bahrami
Produced by
  • Sol Bondy
  • Jacob Jarek
  • Ali Abbasi
Starring
CinematographyNadim Carlsen
Edited by
Music byMartin Dirkov
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 22 May 2022 (2022-05-22) (Cannes)
  • 13 July 2022 (2022-07-13) (France)
  • 13 October 2022 (2022-10-13) (Denmark)
  • 12 January 2023 (2023-01-12) (Germany)
  • 20 January 2023 (2023-01-20) (Sweden)
Running time
117 minutes
Countries
LanguagePersian
Box office$1.7 million[2][3]

Holy Spider (Persian: عنکبوت مقدس, romanized: Ankabut-e moqaddas) is a 2022 Persian-language crime thriller film co-produced, co-written and directed by Ali Abbasi, starring Mehdi Bajestani and Zar Amir Ebrahimi. Based on the true story of Saeed Hanaei, a serial killer who targeted street prostitutes and killed 16 women from 2000 to 2001 in Mashhad, Iran, the film depicts a fictional female journalist investigating a serial killer.

Holy Spider was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival in May,[4] where Ebrahimi won the Best Actress Award for her performance. It was chosen as the Danish entry for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards,[5][6] and made the December shortlist.[7]

Plot

[edit]

Tehran-based journalist Arezoo Rahimi arrives in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer targeting local street prostitutes addicted to drugs, dubbed the "Spider Killer" by the media. The killer follows a pattern of picking up women on his motorcycle, taking them to an apartment and strangling them with their headscarves, before ultimately disposing of their corpses in desolate areas on the city's outskirts.

Rahimi teams up with Sharifi, the editor of a local newspaper, to discover the killer's identity. Sharifi has been in contact with the killer, Saeed Azimi, having been chosen by Saeed as a publicist of sorts. Saeed claims to be cleansing the city in the name of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam; he is shown in tears at the Imam's shrine. A veteran of the Iran–Iraq War, Saeed is married with three children and works as a construction worker.

Eventually, Rahimi and Sharifi are confident enough in the schedule, location, and patterns of the killer to lure him into a trap. Rahimi, posing as a sex worker, boards Saeed's motorcycle. Sharifi follows by car but loses them in the city's backstreets. Rahimi, armed with a pocket knife and a tape recorder, plans to elicit a confession from the murderer and flee but is soon overpowered. After loudly calling for help, she manages to escape and make her way to the police with evidence. In the following days, Saeed is arrested by the police.

As the case goes to trial, Saeed gains strong public support. When offered the opportunity to plead insanity, he reinforces his religious motivations, insisting he is only "crazy" about the eighth Imam and God. When Rahimi interviews Saeed in prison, he confesses to killing 16 women and ominously declares that Rahimi would have been his 17th victim. The following day, Saeed is found guilty and is sentenced to 100 lashes and death.

Later, Saeed is visited in his cell by his father-in-law Haji and his lawyer, who assure him that he will be spared the death sentence and that on the day of his execution, he will be secretly whisked away in a car. When the day arrives, Saeed is spared the 100 lashes, but when taken into the execution room, he panics when no one comes to his rescue, instead being executed by hanging.

After saying goodbye to Sharifi, Rahimi boards a bus back to Tehran. While traveling, she reviews video evidence gathered during the case, pausing over an interview with Saeed's teenage son, Ali, in which he proudly describes how his father overpowered and choked his victims, before re-enacting his father's killings with his younger sister playing the role of the victim.

Cast

[edit]

Production

[edit]

Abbasi was a student in Tehran when the 2000–01 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.[8] Abbasi began writing versions of the film shortly after seeing Hanaei interviewed in Maziar Bahari's 2002 documentary And Along Came a Spider  [fa].[9] 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."[8] 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.[9][8] Additionally, he found it difficult to research the events due to the passage of time and inaccessibilty of certain documents as well as Hanaei's family, motivating him to shift to a narrative with more fictional elements.[10] 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.[9]

The character Rahimi was based on a female journalist who was featured in Maziar Bahari's documentary discussing the case on camera and interviewing Hanaei. Although she was from Mashhad, she did not investigate the crimes, but she covered the trials and wrote a piece on Hanaei's execution that inspired Abbasi.[9] She wrote that his last words were "this was not our deal", suggesting there was some kind of deal with the authorities.[9]

The film is a co-production between Germany's One Two Films, Denmark's Profile Pictures, Sweden's Nordisk Film Production, and France's Why Not Productions, and Wild Bunch International.[11] The production is 41.36% German, 31.05% Danish, 15.3% French, and 12.29% Swedish.[1]

The development of the film officially started in 2016, which was then boosted by the success of Abbasi's 2018 Border.[12] The filmmakers initially tried to shoot in Iran,[9] but this was abandoned by 2019.[12] 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.[12] Abbasi has said this was because the Iranian government interfered.[9] The production then went back to Jordan, where filming finally commenced in May 2021 and lasted 35 days.[12]

Abbasi said Bajestani was taking an enormous risk by playing the killer.[9][8] Amir 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.[9][8]

In the scene where Somayeh's character performs a fellatio, a prosthetic penis was used.[13]

Release

[edit]

The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 22 May 2022, where it received a seven-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening.[14][15] It was released theatrically in France by Metropolitan Filmexport on 13 July 2022,[1] in Denmark by Camera Film on 13 October 2022,[1][6] in Germany by Alamode Film on 12 January 2023,[1] and in Sweden by TriArt Film on 20 January 2023.[1]

In May 2022, Utopia acquired North American rights to the film and released it to select theatres on 28 October 2022,[16][17] expanding to nationwide US theatres on 13 January 2023.[18] Mubi acquired the film for the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, and Malaysia.[19][20]

Reception

[edit]

Critical response

[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of 137 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "Holy Spider foregoes subtlety in favor of a viscerally outraged dramatization inspired by appalling actual events."[21] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[22]

Iranian government

[edit]

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".[23][24]

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".[25] 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."[26]

Amir Ebrahimi told CNN on 3 June 2022 that she had received approximately 200 threats since winning the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. "The problem is that they didn't even watch this movie, and they are judging this movie, just from a trailer", she said, attributing the reaction to the lack of freedom of expression in Iran.[27]

Accusations of plagiarism

[edit]

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.[28][29]

Accolades

[edit]
Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Cannes Film Festival 28 May 2022 Palme d'Or Ali Abbasi Nominated [30]
Best Actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi Won
Jerusalem Film Festival 31 July 2022 Best International Film Holy Spider Nominated [31]
Miskolc International Film Festival 17 September 2022 Emeric Pressburger Prize Nominated [32]
Fantastic Fest 27 September 2022 Best Director Ali Abbasi Won [33]
Montclair Film Festival 30 October 2022 Fiction Feature Ali Abbasi Nominated [34]
Seville European Film Festival 12 November 2022 Golden Giraldillo Nominated [35]
Best Actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi Won
European Film Awards 10 December 2022 Best Film Jacob Jarek, Sol Bondy, Ali Abbasi Nominated [36]
Best Director Ali Abbasi Nominated
Best Screenwriter Ali Abbasi and Afshin Kamran Bahrami Nominated
Best Actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi Nominated
Austin Film Critics Association 10 January 2023 Best International Film Ali Abbasi Nominated [37]
Robert Awards 4 February 2023 Best Danish Film Jacob Jarek, Sol Bondy, Ali Abbasi Won [38]
Best Director Ali Abbasi Won
Best Original Screenplay Ali Abbasi and Afshin Kamran Bahrami Won
Best Actor in a Leading Role Mehdi Bajestani Nominated
Best Actress in a Leading Role Zar Amir Ebrahimi Won
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Arash Ashtiani Won
Best Actress in a Supporting Role Alice Rahimi Nominated
Forouzan Jamshidnejad Nominated
Best Production Design Lina Nordqvist Won
Best Cinematography Nadim Carlsen Won
Best Costume Design Hanadi Khurma Nominated
Best Makeup Farah Jadaane Nominated
Best Editing Olivia Neergaard-Holm and Hayedeh Safiyari Won
Best Sound Design Rasmus Winther Jensen Won
Best Score Martin Dirkov Won
Best Visual Effects Peter Hjorth Won
Satellite Awards 11 February 2023 Best Motion Picture – International Jacob Jarek, Sol Bondy, Ali Abbasi Nominated [39]
Vancouver Film Critics Circle 13 February 2023 Best Foreign Language Film Nominated [40]
Bodil Awards 25 March 2023 Best Danish Film Jacob Jarek, Sol Bondy, Ali Abbasi Nominated ,[41][42]
Best Screenplay Ali Abbasi and Afshin Kamran Bahrami Won
Best Actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi Nominated
Best Actor Mehdi Bajestani Nominated
German Film Award 12 May 2023 Best Fiction Film Jacob Jarek, Sol Bondy, Ali Abbasi Nominated [43]
Best Director Ali Abbasi Nominated
Best Actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi Nominated
Best Actor Mehdi Bajestani Nominated
Variety & Golden Globe's Breakthrough Artist Awards 19 May 2023 Breakthrough Award Zar Amir Ebrahimi Honoree [44][45]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Holy Spider de Ali Abbasi (2022)". Unifrance. Retrieved 30 November 2022. Technical details > Coproducer countries : Germany (41.36%), Denmark (31.05%), France (15.3%), Sweden (12.29%)
  2. ^ "Holy Spider (2022)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  3. ^ "Holy Spider". The Numbers. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  4. ^ Ritman, Alex (17 May 2022). "Cannes: On The Hunt for an Iranian Serial Killer in Trailer for Ali Abbasi's Competition Entry 'Holy Spider' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  5. ^ Ntim, Zac (27 September 2022). "Oscars: Denmark Submits Ali Abbasi's Cannes-Winning Title 'Holy Spider' To International Feature Race". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  6. ^ a b Pham, Annika (28 September 2022). "Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider selected as Danish Oscar entry". Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  7. ^ Giardina, Carolyn (21 December 2022). "Shortlists for 95th Academy Awards Unveiled". The Hollywood Reporter.
  8. ^ a b c d e Kohn, Eric (19 May 2022). "'Holy Spider' Shows a Side of Iran the Country Doesn't Want You to See". IndieWire. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i "English Press Kit" (PDF). Cannes Film Festival. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 May 2022. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  10. ^ Mohtasham, Diba (4 January 2023). "A man killed women he deemed 'immoral' — an Iranian film fictionalizes the story". NPR. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
  11. ^ "Holy Spider". Cineuropa. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  12. ^ a b c d Mitchell, Wendy (21 May 2022). "'Holy Spider' producers on the huge challenges they faced bringing Ali Abbasi's Cannes title to screen". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on 6 July 2022. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  13. ^ "'EO,' 'Holy Spider,' More Directors Talk Challenges of Making Their Oscar-Shortlisted Movies". www.hollywoodreporter.com. 13 January 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  14. ^ Setoodeh, Ramin (22 May 2022). "Iranian Serial Killer Movie 'Holy Spider' — Which Pushes Envelope With Nudity, Sex and Graphic Strangling Scenes — Stuns Cannes". Variety.
  15. ^ "HOLY SPIDER – RANG I – EV – CANNES 2022". Cannes Film Festival. 24 May 2022. Archived from the original on 14 December 2022 – via YouTube.
  16. ^ Wiseman, Andrea (25 May 2022). "Anatomy Of A Cannes Deal: How Upstart North American Buyer Utopia Beat Out Bigger Rivals To Land Ali Abbasi's Bracing Cannes Competition Film 'Holy Spider'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
  17. ^ Jones, Oliver (27 October 2022). "'Holy Spider': A Crisp, Engrossing Crime Thriller That Confronts Iran's Power Structure". Observer.
  18. ^ Utopia [@utopiamovies] (6 January 2023). "Big expansion news for Holy Spider" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  19. ^ Ritman, Alex (27 May 2022). "Cannes: Mubi Acquires Ali Abbasi's 'Holy Spider' for U.K., Ireland, Latin America, Malaysia (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
  20. ^ Nikkhah Azad, Navid (29 November 2022). "Ali Abbasi's HOLY SPIDER hits theaters in Vancouver on December 9". Deed.News (Press release). Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  21. ^ "Holy Spider". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 24 May 2023. Edit this at Wikidata
  22. ^ "Holy Spider". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  23. ^ "Iran condemns Cannes acclaim for "Holy Spider"". Tehran Times. 30 May 2022. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  24. ^ "Iran's Culture Ministry Calls 'Holy Spider' Film Insult To Religious Beliefs". Iran International. 30 May 2022. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  25. ^ "Cannes Film Festival: Iran says protested to France over Holy Spider selection". The New Arab. 1 June 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  26. ^ "Culture minister: Persons in Iran linked to "Holy Spider" face punishment". Tehran Times. 1 June 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  27. ^ Abdelbary, Mohammed (3 June 2022). "She had to flee Iran. Now she's won best actress at Cannes". CNN.
  28. ^ Farhadi, Parasto (24 May 2022). ماجرای «قاتل عنکبوتی» از ایران تا کن (in Persian). Iranian Students' News Agency. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  29. ^ حمله کارگردانان «عنکبوت» و «عنکبوت مقدس» بالا گرفت | ایرج زاد: دروغ نگو؛ می‌خواستی با دلار قانون را دور بزنی!. Hamshahri (in Persian). 24 May 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  30. ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (28 May 2022). "Cannes Film Festival: Ruben Ostlund Wins Second Palme D'Or With 'Triangle Of Sadness' – Full List". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  31. ^ Rosser, Michael (7 July 2022). "Cannes award-winners to compete at Jerusalem Film Festival 2022". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on 12 August 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  32. ^ "18. Cinefest Miskolci Nemzetközi Filmfesztivál" (PDF). Cinefest (in Hungarian). Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  33. ^ Taylor, Drew (27 September 2022). "Fantastic Fest Awards Winners: 'Piggy,' 'The Five Devils' and 'The Menu' Take Top Honors (Exclusive)". TheWrap.
  34. ^ Prusakowski, Steven (30 September 2022). "Montclair Film Festival Announces Full 2022 Program". Awards Radar. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  35. ^ McLennan, Callum (13 November 2022). "'Saint Omer,' 'Close' 'Will-o'-the-Wisp' Win Big at Seville". Variety.
  36. ^ Goodfellow, Melanie (8 November 2022). "'Close', 'Holy Spider' & 'Triangle Of Sadness' Lead European Film Awards Nominations". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  37. ^ "2022 Austin Film Critics Association Award Nominations". Austin Film Critics Association. 3 January 2022. Archived from the original on 3 January 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  38. ^ Pham, Annika (6 February 2023). "Holy Spider sweeps Robert Film Awards - Carmen Curlers, The Orchestra score in TV". Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  39. ^ Anderson, Erik (8 December 2022). "'Top Gun: Maverick' leads International Press Academy's 27th Satellite Awards nominations". Awards Watch. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  40. ^ Neglia, Matt (22 January 2023). "The 2022 Vancouver Film Critics Circle (VFCC) Nominations". NextBestPicture. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  41. ^ "Bodilprisen 2023: Her er de nominerede" [Bodil Award 2023: Here are the nominees]. Bodilprisen.dk (in Danish). 20 January 2023. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  42. ^ "Bodilprisen 2023: Vinderne" [Bodil Award 2023: Winners]. Bodilprisen.dk (in Danish). 25 March 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  43. ^ Roxborough, Scott (24 March 2023). "Oscar Winner 'All Quiet on the Western Front' Leads German Film Awards Nominations With 12". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  44. ^ Earl, William (15 May 2023). "Variety and Golden Globes Awards Partner to Celebrate Breakthrough Talent At Cannes Film Festival". Variety. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  45. ^ Rubin, Rebecca (20 May 2023). "Cate Blanchett Goes Barefoot to Stand With Women of Iran at Variety and Golden Globes Cannes Party". Variety. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
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