Ali Abbasi, an Iranian director living in Scandinavia for over a decade chose a famous case that happened in Iran in 2000 and 2001 as an opportunity to make in ‘Holy Spider‘ a film that deals with one of the most painful aspects of life in his country of origin under Islamic rule – the status of women. He couldn’t film there as he wanted, but ‘Holy Spider‘ – spoken entirely in Persian (Farsi) and played by Iranian actors – manages to very authentically reproduce the setting and atmosphere of Iran and depict the acute problems of its society with the realism and critical spirit of a Western political film.
The city where the action takes place is Masshad, the second most populous city in Iran (over three million inhabitants), known as a place of pilgrimage due to the vast Holy Shrine of Imam Reza and other religious and historical sites. A serial killer named Saeed killed 16 prostitutes here, wanting to ‘purify’ the moral atmosphere of the city by eliminating women who propagated decadence. In catching the perpetrator, in the script of the film that Ali Abbasi co-authored, the main contribution is made by a brave woman journalist, Arezoo Rahimi, who came from Tehran. The character is imaginary, but her existence in the film allowed the director to introduce subplots and direct messages related to the position of women in society. The audience knows from the beginning who the perpetrator is, and the story progresses on two parallel planes – on the one hand, the killer’s nocturnal deeds, but also his daily life, apparently normal and normative, if we exclude the fact that he is an ex-soldier, a traumatized survivor of the Iran-Iraq war; on the other hand, the journalist’s investigation that will lead to the discovery of the criminal. However, the story is far from ending when the crimes are solved. Saeed, supported by some of the religious authorities, becomes a kind of folk hero. The fact that his victims are depraved and immoral women absolves him of guilt in the eyes of many of the townspeople. What will justice do? And finally, what power and significance do justice sentences have in such a system?
Ali Abbasi manages to be authentic not only in recreating the ambience, but also in creating characters who support and interact psychologically believably. The role of the journalist is played by Zar Amir Ebrahimi, an Iranian actress living in France. For this role she received the award for feminine interpretation at Cannes and I think it is a perfectly deserved award for creating this character of a courageous journalist, who constantly risks professionally and physically to find the truth and present it to the public, while at the same time confronting the legal limitations of her status of a woman in the Islamic republic and with the aggressive attitude of some of the men she meets. Saeed’s role is played by Mehdi Bajestani. The character he creates is complex – his deeds are those of a monster, but the faith that guides him is sincere, if obviously misdirected. ‘Holy Spider‘ is a winning combination of true crime, political films, courtroom drama and dramatic social criticism. Creating outside of Iran, Ali Abbasi may say more and differently about the Iranian society of today, but his films resonate and complement those created by other Iranian directors in their country and in exile, bringing to the screens of viewers around the world a complex image, with many shadows but also with a lot of humanity.