Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider is among the most awaited film competing for the Palme d’Or in 2022. In this film, the Swedish-Iranian director narrates a true story of a serial killer. Saeed believed he was on a religious mission to rid Iran’s holy city Mashhad of street prostitutes and immoral women. His arrest and sentencing to death was a key moment in recent Iranian social history. The film looks at the religious background to Iranian society and how Saeed’s exclusion from society shaped the man.
Previously, a film named Spider, directed by Ebrahim Irajzad, was produced in Iran and was based on the same story.
Mehdi Bajestani stars as Saeed while Zahra Amir Ebrahimi portrays a reporter working on the street.
Zahra Amir Ebrahimi, an actress, and photographer based in France won the prize for Best Lead Actress in a Foreign Language Film at the Nice International Film Festival for her role in Reza Rahimi’s Bride vs. Democracy in 2018. Presence at Cannes’s competition will be a new achievement for her.
In 2011, Ali Abbasi graduated from Denmark’s National Film School. His first feature film, the Danish thriller Shelley was selected for the Berlin Film Festival. He also won the Un Certain Regard Award for the film Border at the Cannes Festival 2018. For Holy Spider, he co-wrote the script with Afshin Kamran Bahrami.
With support from the Danish Film Institute, Jacob Jarek is the producer for Profile Pictures in co-production with German One Two Films by Sol Bondy