I went to see Holy Spider last night after reading all the buzz around it. The most notable was Holy Spider taking the best actress win at the Cannes Film Festival. There are three words to solidly describe director Ali Abbasi… Iranian David Fincher.
Holy Spider‘s a gritty, visceral serial killer thriller based on true events that occurred in Iran between 2000 and 2002. The film’s part journalism drama, and part detective thriller. At its core, it boldly takes a feminist stance against the treatment of women and the dominant influence of the patriarchy in Iran.
The central character is a very fascinating and strong individual who stood up to ignorance and misogyny to bring a killer of women to justice.
The intensity build-up throughout the story’s just phenomenal. The story captivates your senses as you watch Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) investigate the murders of multiple women. She’s forced to do the detective work on the case herself. This happens because the local police department doesn’t care that women are being murdered on the streets.
It’s hard for Holy Spider to ignore the cultural issues and inequalities prevalent throughout Iranian society in the early 2000s. American Cinema’s sphere of influence on the international spectrum is present in the film. It’s actually amazing to see play out on-screen.
The interesting part’s seeing how they apply this influence to their own culturally-driven storytelling.
Check out the official trailer below:
Zar Amir Ebrahimi excels as Rahimi, and there’s no doubt she deserved the best actress award at the Cannes film festival. She carries the film brilliantly and never misses a beat.
Holy Spider‘s one of the best films of 2022 and one I’m very hopeful sees a best international feature nomination at the Oscars.
