Holy Spider

Directed by Ali Abbasi (Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and France, 2022, 116 min.).

From visionary director Ali Abbasi (Border) comes the disturbing true story of the Spider Killer, who preyed on sex workers in the holy Iranian city of Mashhad in an effort to “cleanse” it of sinners. The film follows a journalist named Rahimi—played by Zar Amir Ebrahimi in a career-defining performance that won her the Best Actress award at Cannes— as she investigates the killings.

Abbasi, an Iranian expat living in Denmark, says the film is about more than one man’s misogyny: “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” (quoted in FilmInk). Shot before Mahsa Amini’s murder and the uprising that has confronted the world with the Islamic Republic’s brutality toward women, Holy Spider takes on new meaning against the backdrop of these events.

Holy Spider competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, and has been selected as the Danish entry for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards.

“Holy Spider succeeds as a work of art. . . . Moment to moment, scene after scene, both dramatically and stylistically, the film impresses with its careful control, attention to detail and unerring subtlety.” —RogerEbert.com

Watch the trailer.