Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider is now showing exclusively on Mubi in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, and many other countries.Holy Spider.In Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider, the holy city of Mashhad—perched upon the venerated shrine of Imam Reza—bears a haunting: from 2000 to 2001, a spate of murders shattered any semblance of divinity there. As the film retraces these real-world horrors, complete with all the requisite cinematic embellishments, it does not take long to reveal Saeed Hanaei (Mehdi Bajestani), the devout Muslim family man behind the "spider killings," so named for the way he would lure his victims to the home he shared with his unsuspecting wife and children. By the time steely-eyed journalist Arezoo Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) arrives to investigate, a pattern has emerged: Saeed exclusively targets sex workers and addicts, coercing the desperate women onto the back of his motorcycle, before strangling them with their...
- 3/27/2023
- MUBI
“I always had a very specific sense of urgency with this idea,” said Holy Spider director Ali Abbasi of wanting to make a film noir based on the true story of the “Spider Killer” Saeed Hanaei, who saw himself as on a mission from God as he killed 16 women between 2000 and 2001.
The Persian-language drama, which has been a buzz title on the international film circuit since it played in-competition at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, follows female journalist Rahimi, who travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer targeting sex workers. As she draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain when the murderer is embraced by many as a hero. Zar Amir-Ebrahimi stars as Rahimi, and she picked the award for Best Actress in Cannes.
Related: The Contenders International – Deadline’s Full Coverage
The Utopia film...
The Persian-language drama, which has been a buzz title on the international film circuit since it played in-competition at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, follows female journalist Rahimi, who travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer targeting sex workers. As she draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain when the murderer is embraced by many as a hero. Zar Amir-Ebrahimi stars as Rahimi, and she picked the award for Best Actress in Cannes.
Related: The Contenders International – Deadline’s Full Coverage
The Utopia film...
- 12/3/2022
- by Diana Lodderhose
- Deadline Film + TV
How should we balance a movie’s aims and execution, when the two very evidently diverge? In dramatizing the true story of early-aughts serial killer Saeed Hanaei (Mehdi Bajestani), who murdered 16 sex workers, director Ali Abbasi (“Border”) claims that his intention “was not to make a serial killer movie.” As he says in the film’s press notes, “I wanted to make a movie about a serial-killer society. Misogyny everywhere breeds through the habits of people.”
Among these habits, alas, is the knee-jerk objectification and exploitation of women, a practice in which “Holy Spider” repeatedly engages. Within minutes, Saeed’s first victim is shot gratuitously nude; her murder and the subsequent ones that follow are so explicitly violent that Abbasi’s nobly stated goals start to reflect the depressing hypocrisy of his subject.
What’s equally dispiriting is that there were so many other ways to make the very cultural critique to which Abbasi,...
Among these habits, alas, is the knee-jerk objectification and exploitation of women, a practice in which “Holy Spider” repeatedly engages. Within minutes, Saeed’s first victim is shot gratuitously nude; her murder and the subsequent ones that follow are so explicitly violent that Abbasi’s nobly stated goals start to reflect the depressing hypocrisy of his subject.
What’s equally dispiriting is that there were so many other ways to make the very cultural critique to which Abbasi,...
- 11/3/2022
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
Denmark has submitted “Holy Spider” for Best International Film at the 95th Academy Awards. 2022 Cannes Film Festival winner for Best Actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi plays Rahimi, a female journalist who travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer who believes he is doing the work of God, cleansing the streets of sinners by murdering sex workers.
As the body count mounts, and Rahimi draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain as the “Spider Killer” is embraced by many as a hero. Based on the horrific true story of serial killer Saeed Hanaei, acclaimed writer-director Ali Abbasi (“Border”) unveils a gripping crime thriller, and a daring indictment of a society in which rough justice is routinely a fact of life.
See 2023 Oscars: Best International Feature Predictions [Updated: October 2]
“Undeniably arresting,” declared Fionnuala Halligan in Screen International. “A bleakly intense film which...
As the body count mounts, and Rahimi draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain as the “Spider Killer” is embraced by many as a hero. Based on the horrific true story of serial killer Saeed Hanaei, acclaimed writer-director Ali Abbasi (“Border”) unveils a gripping crime thriller, and a daring indictment of a society in which rough justice is routinely a fact of life.
See 2023 Oscars: Best International Feature Predictions [Updated: October 2]
“Undeniably arresting,” declared Fionnuala Halligan in Screen International. “A bleakly intense film which...
- 10/13/2022
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
Atiq Rahimi’s Nocturne Afghan (working title) and Stéphane Brizé’s A Simple Man to both shoot this winter.
MK2 has announced that new films from Atiq Rahimi and Stéphane Brizé will shoot this winter.
Nocturne Afghan (working title) is the third feature from Rahimi, following The Patience Stone and Earth and Ashes. It will begin shooting in January 2015 in Paris and is produced by Marin, Elisha and Nathanaël Karmitz for Mk Productions. MK2 handles all rights.
The film follows a young Afghan who, after his friend leaves for London without a trace, finds himself rushing around Paris to find the money needed to pay the smuggler who is bringing his younger brother into the city.
Having won the César for Best Screenplay for Mademoiselle Chambon, Stéphane Brizé will shoot his sixth feature A Simple Man in the outskirts of Paris this month.
Starring Vincent Lindon, the film is produced by Christophe Rossignon and Philip Boeffard for Nord-Ouest...
MK2 has announced that new films from Atiq Rahimi and Stéphane Brizé will shoot this winter.
Nocturne Afghan (working title) is the third feature from Rahimi, following The Patience Stone and Earth and Ashes. It will begin shooting in January 2015 in Paris and is produced by Marin, Elisha and Nathanaël Karmitz for Mk Productions. MK2 handles all rights.
The film follows a young Afghan who, after his friend leaves for London without a trace, finds himself rushing around Paris to find the money needed to pay the smuggler who is bringing his younger brother into the city.
Having won the César for Best Screenplay for Mademoiselle Chambon, Stéphane Brizé will shoot his sixth feature A Simple Man in the outskirts of Paris this month.
Starring Vincent Lindon, the film is produced by Christophe Rossignon and Philip Boeffard for Nord-Ouest...
- 11/4/2014
- by ian.sandwell@screendaily.com (Ian Sandwell)
- ScreenDaily
French based Afghan novelist turned director Atiq Rahimi adapted his second novel for the screen which puts him in a small circle of authors adapting their own material twice….from book form to the big screen. Set during an unspecified era, a young Afghan woman finds solace in her own comatose husband whom she imagines as her own magical stone that she can tell her secrets and desires. Rahimi who won the highest literature prize in France for his novel, the Prix Goncourt adapted his novel with legendary writer Jean-Claude Carrière helping him to open the mostly monologue driven novel for cinematic interpretation. Rahimi who also adapted his first novel “Earth and Ashes” for the screen, makes for a stronger case his second time out. With The Patience Stone, he cuts deep into the hypocrisy of the male dominated Afghan culture to shed light on the plight of Afghan women...
- 8/16/2013
- by Yama Rahimi
- IONCINEMA.com
Stone Faced: Rahimi’s Concept Bogged Down By Transparency
As he did with his 2004 film, Earth and Ashes, Afghan filmmaker Atiq Rahimi adapts one of his own novels, The Patience Stone, for his latest feature. A situational drama inspired by a native fable concerning the titular stone, Rahimi proposes a ‘what if’ scenario that unfortunately gets repetitively tiresome, even if its locale grants it a certain compelling fervor. What if a Muslim woman could speak her mind truthfully without fear of consequence, relay her innermost thoughts and emotions to a catatonic spouse that’s kept her under the harsh thumb of his oppression for a decade? Whatever agency our lead protagonist is able to establish for herself, there’s an arid hue of hopelessness surrounding her specific situation, and its dubious streak of fortune makes this feel like science fiction.
In an unspecified Afghan city set during the country’s recent upheaval,...
As he did with his 2004 film, Earth and Ashes, Afghan filmmaker Atiq Rahimi adapts one of his own novels, The Patience Stone, for his latest feature. A situational drama inspired by a native fable concerning the titular stone, Rahimi proposes a ‘what if’ scenario that unfortunately gets repetitively tiresome, even if its locale grants it a certain compelling fervor. What if a Muslim woman could speak her mind truthfully without fear of consequence, relay her innermost thoughts and emotions to a catatonic spouse that’s kept her under the harsh thumb of his oppression for a decade? Whatever agency our lead protagonist is able to establish for herself, there’s an arid hue of hopelessness surrounding her specific situation, and its dubious streak of fortune makes this feel like science fiction.
In an unspecified Afghan city set during the country’s recent upheaval,...
- 8/16/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired U.S. rights to The Patience Stone . The film, adapted from the award-winning novel of the same name (winner of the 2008 Prix Goncourt), is directed by Atiq Rahimi ( Earth and Ashes ). The film recently showed at the Toronto International Film Festival and will be released in 2013. The Patience Stone is Rahimi.s second fiction feature. The film features a tour de force performance by Golshifteh Farahani who starred in Asghar Farhadi's About Elly , Marjane Satrapi's Chicken With Plums , and Body of Lies . The film was produced by Michael Gentile and co-produced by Studio 37, Corniche Pictures and Razor Films. The Patience Stone marks Sony Pictures Classics' second acquisition with Razor Films this year....
- 9/16/2012
- Comingsoon.net
Too much like watching a filmed stage play for its own good, "The Patience Stone" is a flawed attempt to discuss the position of women in the Islamic world. Afghani born director Atiq Rahimi has adapted his own book for screen, just as he did with his previous outing in the director’s chair "Earth and Ashes" (2004). Although punctuated with a few flashbacks, Rahimi relies on beautiful Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani to carry the picture as she delivers a monologue to her comatose husband, revealing her deepest, darkest secrets, including infidelity. Bordering on madness herself, Rahimi’s attempt to describe a woman’s lot is undone by the staid mechanism by which the story is framed. It’s definitely not poetry in motion. Criticwire grade: C [Kaleem Aftab]...
- 9/15/2012
- by Kaleem Aftab
- Indiewire
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