Reviews will have to wait till the Cannes Film Festival kicks off on May 14, but it’s not too early for a critic to weigh in on this year’s lineup — or how it looks on paper, at least, and what the selection might say about the state of things.
At the top of the press conference, festival director Thierry Frémaux noted that last year would be a tough edition to top. The two big winners of the 2023 competition, “Anatomy of a Fall” and “Zone of Interest,” went on to score Oscar best picture nominations, alongside Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” The festival made strides toward gender parity, with nearly a third of the films in competition directed by women. And to complicate matters, Hollywood has since been hit by two production-stopping guild strikes, delaying films the studios might have sent to Cannes.
Judging by the titles unveiled today,...
At the top of the press conference, festival director Thierry Frémaux noted that last year would be a tough edition to top. The two big winners of the 2023 competition, “Anatomy of a Fall” and “Zone of Interest,” went on to score Oscar best picture nominations, alongside Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” The festival made strides toward gender parity, with nearly a third of the films in competition directed by women. And to complicate matters, Hollywood has since been hit by two production-stopping guild strikes, delaying films the studios might have sent to Cannes.
Judging by the titles unveiled today,...
- 4/12/2024
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Apple Original Films has landed global rights to the feature documentary Bread & Roses, the acclaimed 2023 Cannes Film Festival selection revealing the powerful resistance of Afghan women against the Taliban. The film, directed by Sahra Mani (A Thousand Girls Like Me), is produced by Excellent Cadaver’s Jennifer Lawrence and Justine Ciarrocchi, alongside Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights advocate and executive producer Malala Yousafzai’s Extracurricular and Mani.
The doc is set to premiere globally on Apple TV+ on June 21. Farhad Khosravi of Eyan Foundation exec producing.
Bread & Roses offers a window into the seismic impact on women’s rights and livelihoods after Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021. The film follows three women, in real time, as they fight to recover their autonomy. Mani captures the spirit and resilience of Afghan women through a raw depiction of their harrowing plight.
Related: Cannes Analysis: Five Talking Points From...
The doc is set to premiere globally on Apple TV+ on June 21. Farhad Khosravi of Eyan Foundation exec producing.
Bread & Roses offers a window into the seismic impact on women’s rights and livelihoods after Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021. The film follows three women, in real time, as they fight to recover their autonomy. Mani captures the spirit and resilience of Afghan women through a raw depiction of their harrowing plight.
Related: Cannes Analysis: Five Talking Points From...
- 4/11/2024
- by Justin Kroll
- Deadline Film + TV
Director Ali Abbasi had Sebastian Stan undergo an ominous transformation for his forthcoming film The Apprentice, in which the actor will star a young Donald Trump. As proven by the first-look photos from the movie, set to premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, the process was a success — Stan’s Trump looks exactly like the kind of person who would be sued by the Department of Justice for violating the Fair Housing Act.
The Apprentice positions Stan as Trump beside Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, the lawyer who represented the...
The Apprentice positions Stan as Trump beside Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, the lawyer who represented the...
- 4/11/2024
- by Larisha Paul
- Rollingstone.com
Sebastian Stan is continuing to be a master of disguise.
After portraying Tommy Lee in Hulu series “Pam and Tommy” and transforming via prosthetics for “A Different Man,” Stan is now taking on the role of a lifetime: Donald Trump. Stan leads “The Apprentice,” directed by “Border” and “Holy Spider” filmmaker Ali Abbasi from a script by Gabe Sherman.
“The Apprentice” is debuting at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in competition alongside buzzy features like Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada,” Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope,” and David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds.”
“The Apprentice” centers on Trump’s (Stan) rise to fame following what the official description calls a “Faustian deal” with right-wing lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Trump’s marriage to Ivana Trump (Maria Bakalova) and relationship with his family including Fred Trump Sr. (Martin Donovan) are also interrogated onscreen. The film...
After portraying Tommy Lee in Hulu series “Pam and Tommy” and transforming via prosthetics for “A Different Man,” Stan is now taking on the role of a lifetime: Donald Trump. Stan leads “The Apprentice,” directed by “Border” and “Holy Spider” filmmaker Ali Abbasi from a script by Gabe Sherman.
“The Apprentice” is debuting at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in competition alongside buzzy features like Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada,” Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope,” and David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds.”
“The Apprentice” centers on Trump’s (Stan) rise to fame following what the official description calls a “Faustian deal” with right-wing lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Trump’s marriage to Ivana Trump (Maria Bakalova) and relationship with his family including Fred Trump Sr. (Martin Donovan) are also interrogated onscreen. The film...
- 4/11/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
The first-look image of Sebastian Stan as a young, pre-tv star and pre-president Donald Trump in buzzy upcoming biopic “The Apprentice” has been revealed.
Ali Abbasi’s feature — which has just been announced as part of the 2024 Cannes main competition — charts Trump’s ascent to power through what is described as a “Faustian deal” with the influential right-wing lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn (seen in the still being portrayed by Jeremy Strong). As the synopsis reads, “‘The Apprentice’ is a dive into the underbelly of the American empire.”
The hot button film, written by Gabe Sherman and likely to cause a stir on both sides of the political fence, also stars Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump and Martin Donovan as Fred Trump Sr.
Producers include Daniel Bekerman for Scythia Films (Canada), Jacob Jarek for Profile Pictures (Denmark), Ruth Treacy and Julianne Forde for Tailored Films (Ireland), Abbasi and Louis Tisne...
Ali Abbasi’s feature — which has just been announced as part of the 2024 Cannes main competition — charts Trump’s ascent to power through what is described as a “Faustian deal” with the influential right-wing lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn (seen in the still being portrayed by Jeremy Strong). As the synopsis reads, “‘The Apprentice’ is a dive into the underbelly of the American empire.”
The hot button film, written by Gabe Sherman and likely to cause a stir on both sides of the political fence, also stars Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump and Martin Donovan as Fred Trump Sr.
Producers include Daniel Bekerman for Scythia Films (Canada), Jacob Jarek for Profile Pictures (Denmark), Ruth Treacy and Julianne Forde for Tailored Films (Ireland), Abbasi and Louis Tisne...
- 4/11/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
It’s official: Donald Trump — or at least a fictionalized version of him — is heading to Cannes.
The prestigious French film festival unveiled its 2024 official film selection Thursday in Paris, and Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice was among the titles revealed for the event’s main competition.
The biographical drama stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and explores his career as an aspiring real estate tycoon in the New York City of the 1970s and 1980s. The film is described as a mentor-protégé narrative that documents the start of an American dynasty and tackles themes including power, corruption and deception. It delves into the relationship between Trump and Roy Cohn, the New York City prosecutor oft-remembered for working with Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the Second Red Scare.
The movie’s official logline reads: “The Apprentice is a dive into the underbelly of the American empire. It charts a young...
The prestigious French film festival unveiled its 2024 official film selection Thursday in Paris, and Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice was among the titles revealed for the event’s main competition.
The biographical drama stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and explores his career as an aspiring real estate tycoon in the New York City of the 1970s and 1980s. The film is described as a mentor-protégé narrative that documents the start of an American dynasty and tackles themes including power, corruption and deception. It delves into the relationship between Trump and Roy Cohn, the New York City prosecutor oft-remembered for working with Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the Second Red Scare.
The movie’s official logline reads: “The Apprentice is a dive into the underbelly of the American empire. It charts a young...
- 4/11/2024
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Official Selection for the 77th Cannes Film Festival was revealed Thursday, with 19 movies in Competition (see full lists below).
Familiar names who will launch new works in the Competition include Ali Abbasi, who brings The Apprentice, a feature pic about the early life of Donald Trump. Andrea Arnold returns with Bird, starring Barry Keoghan, and Jacques Audiard’s latest, Emilia Perez, a musical with Selena Gomez will also debut in competition.
Elsewhere, American filmmaker Sean Baker brings Anora to the Croisette. Poor Things filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos will launch Kinds of Kindness, his latest collab with Emma Stone. David Cronenberg returns with The Shrouds, and Paul Schrader will debut Oh Canada starring Jacob Elordi, Uma Thurman and Richard Gere.
Related: ‘The Apprentice’: First Look At Sebastian Stan As Donald Trump & Jeremy Strong As Roy Cohn In Cannes Competition Film
There’s a strong English-language and American presence in the...
Familiar names who will launch new works in the Competition include Ali Abbasi, who brings The Apprentice, a feature pic about the early life of Donald Trump. Andrea Arnold returns with Bird, starring Barry Keoghan, and Jacques Audiard’s latest, Emilia Perez, a musical with Selena Gomez will also debut in competition.
Elsewhere, American filmmaker Sean Baker brings Anora to the Croisette. Poor Things filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos will launch Kinds of Kindness, his latest collab with Emma Stone. David Cronenberg returns with The Shrouds, and Paul Schrader will debut Oh Canada starring Jacob Elordi, Uma Thurman and Richard Gere.
Related: ‘The Apprentice’: First Look At Sebastian Stan As Donald Trump & Jeremy Strong As Roy Cohn In Cannes Competition Film
There’s a strong English-language and American presence in the...
- 4/11/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump drama The Apprentice, Anora, the latest from The Florida Project and Red Rocket director Sean Baker, and Andrea Arnold’s Bird, starring Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski, are among the highlights of this year’s Cannes Film Festival competition.
Abbasi, the Iran-born, Sweden-based director, whose Holy Spider was a sensation of the 2022 Cannes festival, returns with his story of how a young Donald Trump and the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn built up Trump’s real estate business in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, Succession‘s Jeremy Strong plays Cohn and Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) is wife Ivana.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things follow-up Kinds of Kindness will also premiere in the Cannes competition. The film, featuring the Oscar-winning Poor Things star Emma Stone, will be high on every Cannes attendee’s must-see list. The Greek auteur has again...
Abbasi, the Iran-born, Sweden-based director, whose Holy Spider was a sensation of the 2022 Cannes festival, returns with his story of how a young Donald Trump and the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn built up Trump’s real estate business in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, Succession‘s Jeremy Strong plays Cohn and Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) is wife Ivana.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things follow-up Kinds of Kindness will also premiere in the Cannes competition. The film, featuring the Oscar-winning Poor Things star Emma Stone, will be high on every Cannes attendee’s must-see list. The Greek auteur has again...
- 4/11/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In what looks to be another robust year in the making, the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will bring together several iconic filmmakers, including Francis Ford Coppola with “Megalopolis” starring Adam Driver, George Miller with “Furiosa” starring Anya Taylor-Joy, as well as George Lucas who will be feted with an honorary Palme d’Or. Kevin Costner will also be on hand with the first installment of his Western epic “Horizon, an American Saga.”
Some of the high-profile films in the pipeline for this year’s competition include Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” a stylized three-part story set in the present that reunites the “Poor Things” helmer with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe; Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada” with Richard Gere, based on a novel by the late Russell Banks (“Affliction”); Jacques Audiard’s musical melodrama “Emilia Perez” starring Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez; Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope” with...
Some of the high-profile films in the pipeline for this year’s competition include Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” a stylized three-part story set in the present that reunites the “Poor Things” helmer with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe; Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada” with Richard Gere, based on a novel by the late Russell Banks (“Affliction”); Jacques Audiard’s musical melodrama “Emilia Perez” starring Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez; Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope” with...
- 4/11/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy, Ellise Shafer, Alex Ritman and Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
To make a film critical of oneself and the values instilled in you by family and society is not an easy task. But that’s exactly what Mohamed Kordofani set out to do with Goodbye Julia. “I wanted this to be a mirror for Sudanese people. I think we, as a community, care too much about how people view us but we don’t care at all about what the people we oppress think.”
The film–screening for free this Tuesday, December 12 as part of Film Independent Presents!–tackles the macro issues of racism, colorism and prejudice within Sudan while concentrating on the growing friendship between two women in Khartoum. The first Mona (Eiman Yousef) is a privileged Sudanese housewife of Arab descent. The other, Julia (Siran Riak), is a poor woman originally from South Sudan and of African descent who ends up being her maid.
Like an Asghar Farhadi...
The film–screening for free this Tuesday, December 12 as part of Film Independent Presents!–tackles the macro issues of racism, colorism and prejudice within Sudan while concentrating on the growing friendship between two women in Khartoum. The first Mona (Eiman Yousef) is a privileged Sudanese housewife of Arab descent. The other, Julia (Siran Riak), is a poor woman originally from South Sudan and of African descent who ends up being her maid.
Like an Asghar Farhadi...
- 12/7/2023
- by Murtada Elfadl
- Film Independent News & More
Is it too soon for a movie about Donald Trump? Frankly, if I never see the 45th U.S. President's face again it'll be too soon, but it's not surprising that after filmmakers have spent the past several years filling their projects with Trump-like allegorical figures, someone would finally bite the bullet and make a full-on biopic. The upcoming film "The Apprentice" sounds more like a snapshot of the political figure's life than a complete biographical account, but it'll no doubt stir up plenty of intrigue regardless – especially when it plans to include other headline-grabbing names like Ivana Trump and Roy Cohn.
While "The Apprentice" won't be hitting theaters in time for award season, it's still a fascinating project worth keeping an eye on. Any initial ick you might get about the idea of Trump as a protagonist may be tempered by the project director's unique filmography and the eclectic,...
While "The Apprentice" won't be hitting theaters in time for award season, it's still a fascinating project worth keeping an eye on. Any initial ick you might get about the idea of Trump as a protagonist may be tempered by the project director's unique filmography and the eclectic,...
- 12/4/2023
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
How’s this for intriguing? Deadline reports that Sebastian Stan will star as a young Donald Trump in “The Apprentice,” Ali Abbasi‘s feature follow-up to last year’s “Holy Spider.” And Stan isn’t the only big name to sign on to Abbasi’s new movie: “Succession” star Jeremy Strong is also on board to play attorney Roy Cohn, while Maria Bakalova will play Trump’s first wife, Ivanka.
Continue reading ‘The Apprentice’: Sebastian Stan Is Donald Trump In ‘Holy Spider’ Director’s Next Film, Jeremy Strong & Maria Bakalova To Also Star at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘The Apprentice’: Sebastian Stan Is Donald Trump In ‘Holy Spider’ Director’s Next Film, Jeremy Strong & Maria Bakalova To Also Star at The Playlist.
- 11/30/2023
- by Ned Booth
- The Playlist
Actor Sebastian Stan is playing young Donald Trump in a movie titled ‘The Student’ from Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi.
The cast also includes ‘Succession’ Emmy winner Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn and ‘Borat 2’ and ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ actor Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump, reports Variety.
According to the logline: “‘The Student’ is an exploration of power and ambition set in a world of corruption and deceit. It’s a mentor-protege story that charts the origins of an American dynasty. Filled with larger than life characters, it reveals the moral and human cost of a culture defined by winners and losers.”
Gabriel Sherman, author of ‘The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – and Divided a Country’, will write the film about Trump.
As per Variety, his novel inspired the Showtime miniseries ‘The Loudest Voice’, which starred Russell Crowe as Roger Ailes. ‘The Student...
The cast also includes ‘Succession’ Emmy winner Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn and ‘Borat 2’ and ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ actor Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump, reports Variety.
According to the logline: “‘The Student’ is an exploration of power and ambition set in a world of corruption and deceit. It’s a mentor-protege story that charts the origins of an American dynasty. Filled with larger than life characters, it reveals the moral and human cost of a culture defined by winners and losers.”
Gabriel Sherman, author of ‘The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – and Divided a Country’, will write the film about Trump.
As per Variety, his novel inspired the Showtime miniseries ‘The Loudest Voice’, which starred Russell Crowe as Roger Ailes. ‘The Student...
- 11/30/2023
- by Agency News Desk
- GlamSham
Actor Sebastian Stan is playing young Donald Trump in a movie titled ‘The Student’ from Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi.
The cast also includes ‘Succession’ Emmy winner Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn and ‘Borat 2’ and ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ actor Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump, reports Variety.
According to the logline: “‘The Student’ is an exploration of power and ambition set in a world of corruption and deceit. It’s a mentor-protege story that charts the origins of an American dynasty. Filled with larger than life characters, it reveals the moral and human cost of a culture defined by winners and losers.”
Gabriel Sherman, author of ‘The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – and Divided a Country’, will write the film about Trump.
As per Variety, his novel inspired the Showtime miniseries ‘The Loudest Voice’, which starred Russell Crowe as Roger Ailes. ‘The Student...
The cast also includes ‘Succession’ Emmy winner Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn and ‘Borat 2’ and ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ actor Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump, reports Variety.
According to the logline: “‘The Student’ is an exploration of power and ambition set in a world of corruption and deceit. It’s a mentor-protege story that charts the origins of an American dynasty. Filled with larger than life characters, it reveals the moral and human cost of a culture defined by winners and losers.”
Gabriel Sherman, author of ‘The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – and Divided a Country’, will write the film about Trump.
As per Variety, his novel inspired the Showtime miniseries ‘The Loudest Voice’, which starred Russell Crowe as Roger Ailes. ‘The Student...
- 11/30/2023
- by Agency News Desk
Sebastian Stan is set to portray Donald Trump in the upcoming biopic, The Apprentice, directed by Ali Abbasi.
According to Deadline, the film will follow a young Trump’s ascent to power and prestige in New York in the ‘70s and ‘80s, with Maria Bakalova cast as Ivana Trump and Jeremy Strong (Succession) as Roy Cohn.
Per Variety, the film’s logline explains that it’s an “exploration of power and ambition set in a world of corruption and deceit. It’s a mentor-protege story that charts the origins of an American dynasty. Filled with larger than life characters, it reveals the moral and human cost of a culture defined by winners and losers.”
The Apprentice will be written by Gabriel Sherman, whose book, The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – and Divided a Country, was adapted into Showtime’s The Loudest Voice,...
According to Deadline, the film will follow a young Trump’s ascent to power and prestige in New York in the ‘70s and ‘80s, with Maria Bakalova cast as Ivana Trump and Jeremy Strong (Succession) as Roy Cohn.
Per Variety, the film’s logline explains that it’s an “exploration of power and ambition set in a world of corruption and deceit. It’s a mentor-protege story that charts the origins of an American dynasty. Filled with larger than life characters, it reveals the moral and human cost of a culture defined by winners and losers.”
The Apprentice will be written by Gabriel Sherman, whose book, The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – and Divided a Country, was adapted into Showtime’s The Loudest Voice,...
- 11/30/2023
- by Jo Vito
- Consequence - Film News
Sebastian Stan is set to portray a young Donald Trump in a movie from filmmaker Ali Abbasi.
The Apprentice began principal photography this week and features an ensemble cast that includes Jeremy Strong and Maria Bakalova. The film focuses on Trump as he builds his real estate business in New York City in the 1970s and ’80s, according to media reports.
Abbasi (Holy Spider) is directing from a script by Gabriel Sherman. The latter’s biography of Fox News founder Roger Ailes, The Loudest Voice in the Room, was the basis for Showtime’s 2019 miniseries The Loudest Voice that starred Russell Crowe.
The Apprentice is described as a mentor-protégé narrative that documents the start of an American dynasty and tackles themes including power, corruption and deception.
Producers of The Apprentice are Daniel Bekerman of Scythia Films, Jacob Jarek of Profile Pictures and Ruth Treacy of Taylored Films. Executive producing are Sherman,...
The Apprentice began principal photography this week and features an ensemble cast that includes Jeremy Strong and Maria Bakalova. The film focuses on Trump as he builds his real estate business in New York City in the 1970s and ’80s, according to media reports.
Abbasi (Holy Spider) is directing from a script by Gabriel Sherman. The latter’s biography of Fox News founder Roger Ailes, The Loudest Voice in the Room, was the basis for Showtime’s 2019 miniseries The Loudest Voice that starred Russell Crowe.
The Apprentice is described as a mentor-protégé narrative that documents the start of an American dynasty and tackles themes including power, corruption and deception.
Producers of The Apprentice are Daniel Bekerman of Scythia Films, Jacob Jarek of Profile Pictures and Ruth Treacy of Taylored Films. Executive producing are Sherman,...
- 11/29/2023
- by Ryan Gajewski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sebastian Stan is playing young Donald Trump in a movie titled “The Apprentice” from Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi (“Holy Spider”), Variety can confirm.
The cast also includes “Succession” Emmy winner Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn and “Borat 2” and “Bodies Bodies Bodies” actor Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump. According to the logline, “‘The Student’ is an exploration of power and ambition set in a world of corruption and deceit. It’s a mentor-protege story that charts the origins of an American dynasty. Filled with larger than life characters, it reveals the moral and human cost of a culture defined by winners and losers.”
Gabriel Sherman, author of “The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – and Divided a Country,” will write the film about Trump. His novel inspired the Showtime miniseries “The Loudest Voice,” which starred Russell Crowe as Roger Ailes. “The Student...
The cast also includes “Succession” Emmy winner Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn and “Borat 2” and “Bodies Bodies Bodies” actor Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump. According to the logline, “‘The Student’ is an exploration of power and ambition set in a world of corruption and deceit. It’s a mentor-protege story that charts the origins of an American dynasty. Filled with larger than life characters, it reveals the moral and human cost of a culture defined by winners and losers.”
Gabriel Sherman, author of “The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – and Divided a Country,” will write the film about Trump. His novel inspired the Showtime miniseries “The Loudest Voice,” which starred Russell Crowe as Roger Ailes. “The Student...
- 11/29/2023
- by Jordan Moreau
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Here’s one you probably didn’t see coming: Sebastian Stan, the Emmy and Golden Globe nominee known for his work in the MCU and the acclaimed Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy, has been tapped for the role of a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice, a new film from Cannes prize-winning Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi (Holy Spider).
Also aboard the film in major roles are Emmy and Golden Globe winner Jeremy Strong (Succession) and Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3). Production commenced this week.
Billed as an exploration of power and ambition, set in a world of corruption and deceit, The Apprentice will examine Trump’s efforts to build his real estate business in New York in the ’70s and ’80s, also digging into his relationship with infamous attorney Roy Cohn. It’s a mentor-protege story that charts the origins of a major American dynasty.
Also aboard the film in major roles are Emmy and Golden Globe winner Jeremy Strong (Succession) and Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3). Production commenced this week.
Billed as an exploration of power and ambition, set in a world of corruption and deceit, The Apprentice will examine Trump’s efforts to build his real estate business in New York in the ’70s and ’80s, also digging into his relationship with infamous attorney Roy Cohn. It’s a mentor-protege story that charts the origins of a major American dynasty.
- 11/29/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
A gritty slice of neorealism that would have fit in perfectly during the peak period of the Iranian New Wave, Empty Nets (Leere Netze) marks an impressive feature debut for Iranian German filmmaker Behrooz Karamizade. Premiering at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, this drama about a financially impoverished twentysomething desperately attempting to earn the money he needs to marry his girlfriend packs an enduring punch.
When we’re introduced to Amir (Hamid Reza Abbasi), he’s deeply in love with both the sea, in which he’s seen playfully frolicking like a dolphin in an early scene, and his girlfriend Narges (a radiant Sadaf Asgari), who obviously shares his affections. It also becomes clear that he’s a young man of integrity when he loses his job at a catering hall after loudly objecting to his boss’ decision to cancel a wedding at the last minute because of unpaid fees.
When we’re introduced to Amir (Hamid Reza Abbasi), he’s deeply in love with both the sea, in which he’s seen playfully frolicking like a dolphin in an early scene, and his girlfriend Narges (a radiant Sadaf Asgari), who obviously shares his affections. It also becomes clear that he’s a young man of integrity when he loses his job at a catering hall after loudly objecting to his boss’ decision to cancel a wedding at the last minute because of unpaid fees.
- 7/3/2023
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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
To no one’s surprise, Edward Berger’s epic WWI drama All Quiet on the Western Front is the front runner for this year’s German film awards. The Netflix feature, which picked up nine Oscar nominations and won four — both records for a German movie — received 12 nominations on Friday for Germany’s top cinema honor, known as the Lola.
The film, the first German-language adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque classic 1929 anti-war novel, is the clear favorite going into this year’s Lolas. In addition to the Oscar sweep — the film won best international feature, best cinematography, best production design, and best score at this year’s Academy Awards — All Quiet on the Western Front dominated the 2023 Baftas, taking seven trophies, including for best film and best director.
All Quiet was nominated in every Lola category it qualified for, including best film, best director for Berger, and best actor...
The film, the first German-language adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque classic 1929 anti-war novel, is the clear favorite going into this year’s Lolas. In addition to the Oscar sweep — the film won best international feature, best cinematography, best production design, and best score at this year’s Academy Awards — All Quiet on the Western Front dominated the 2023 Baftas, taking seven trophies, including for best film and best director.
All Quiet was nominated in every Lola category it qualified for, including best film, best director for Berger, and best actor...
- 3/24/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A poster has been unveiled for “Barzakh,” starring top Pakistani actors Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed.
The only South Asian selection at Series Mania this year, the series will debut in the showcase’s International Panorama, a 12-title competitive section where it will be eligible for the best series, director, actress, actor, student jury and audience awards.
“Barzakh” (6 x 58′) is produced by Waqas Hassan and Shailja Kejriwal for Zindagi, the Indian subcontinent focused programming block on streamer ZEE5 Global. It is helmed by critically acclaimed director Asim Abbasi who also directed Zindagi’s first Pakistani original “Churails” and the feature film “Cake.”
A family drama centred around an elderly man’s quest for love, “Barzakh” explores intergenerational trauma between fathers and sons. The narrative is framed within a fantastical world of supernatural beings and otherworldly events that reveal the chasms between life, death and rebirth.
Khan portrays the role of...
The only South Asian selection at Series Mania this year, the series will debut in the showcase’s International Panorama, a 12-title competitive section where it will be eligible for the best series, director, actress, actor, student jury and audience awards.
“Barzakh” (6 x 58′) is produced by Waqas Hassan and Shailja Kejriwal for Zindagi, the Indian subcontinent focused programming block on streamer ZEE5 Global. It is helmed by critically acclaimed director Asim Abbasi who also directed Zindagi’s first Pakistani original “Churails” and the feature film “Cake.”
A family drama centred around an elderly man’s quest for love, “Barzakh” explores intergenerational trauma between fathers and sons. The narrative is framed within a fantastical world of supernatural beings and otherworldly events that reveal the chasms between life, death and rebirth.
Khan portrays the role of...
- 3/17/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
This post contains spoilers for "The Last of Us," season 1, episode 8, "When We Are in Need."
He may have spent the whole last episode laid out on a mattress, clinging to his life, but Joel (Pedro Pascal) came roaring back to life this week on "The Last of Us." All he needs is a shot of penicillin and this guy is like Popeye the Sailor Man with a can of spinach. Joel's teenage traveling companion, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), puts a knife in his hand and leaves him to his own devices in the basement of a house as a group of unwitting cannibal cultists, led by David (Scott Shepherd), closes in. They're seeking vengeance for the man Joel killed back in episode 6, the one who stabbed him and put him out of commission as Ellie flashed back to her shopping mall memories in episode 7.
Joel manages to take out several guys,...
He may have spent the whole last episode laid out on a mattress, clinging to his life, but Joel (Pedro Pascal) came roaring back to life this week on "The Last of Us." All he needs is a shot of penicillin and this guy is like Popeye the Sailor Man with a can of spinach. Joel's teenage traveling companion, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), puts a knife in his hand and leaves him to his own devices in the basement of a house as a group of unwitting cannibal cultists, led by David (Scott Shepherd), closes in. They're seeking vengeance for the man Joel killed back in episode 6, the one who stabbed him and put him out of commission as Ellie flashed back to her shopping mall memories in episode 7.
Joel manages to take out several guys,...
- 3/7/2023
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
While Sweden’s Ruben Östlund grabbed some Oscar nominations and took home Cannes’ Palmed’Or last year, two other Scandinavian filmmakers basked in the international spotlight following their Cannes competition premieres: Ali Abbasi with “Holy Spider” and Tarik Saleh with “Cairo Conspiracy” (previously titled “Boy From Heaven”).
Abbasi, an Iranian-born Danish helmer, and Saleh, a Swedish director whose father is Egyptian, are part of an exciting new generation of Nordic helmers who are shaking up traditional Scandinavian cinema.
These filmmakers are delivering singular and timely movies shot abroad or in different languages, weaving together genres and political elements.
“Holy Spider” was based on the true story of a family man who became a serial killer and murdered sex workers in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad, while “Cairo Conspiracy” is set against the backdrop of a ruthless struggle between Egypt’s religious and political elite.
Breaking away from the longentrenched trend of so-called Nordic Noir,...
Abbasi, an Iranian-born Danish helmer, and Saleh, a Swedish director whose father is Egyptian, are part of an exciting new generation of Nordic helmers who are shaking up traditional Scandinavian cinema.
These filmmakers are delivering singular and timely movies shot abroad or in different languages, weaving together genres and political elements.
“Holy Spider” was based on the true story of a family man who became a serial killer and murdered sex workers in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad, while “Cairo Conspiracy” is set against the backdrop of a ruthless struggle between Egypt’s religious and political elite.
Breaking away from the longentrenched trend of so-called Nordic Noir,...
- 2/19/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Iranian cinema got a rare bit of good news recently. Earlier this month, two of the country’s most famous dissident directors —Jafar Panahi (Taxi, No Bears) and Mohammad Rasoulof (Berlin Golden Bear winner There Is No Evil) were released from prison after months behind bars.
The elation surrounding their release was short lived: Rasoulof was soon served with new, dubious, charges that could land him in back in jail. And Panahi is still banned from making movies or from leaving the country. And given the continued, and brutal, suppression of protesters in the country by the Tehran regime, there is little cause for celebration.
“Releasing some individuals among thousands who have been arrested during a few past months, doesn’t lead me to optimism,” notes Iranian documentary filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi (Profession: Documentarist). “Considering all these issues and censorship and restrictions we are facing with, there is a long process...
The elation surrounding their release was short lived: Rasoulof was soon served with new, dubious, charges that could land him in back in jail. And Panahi is still banned from making movies or from leaving the country. And given the continued, and brutal, suppression of protesters in the country by the Tehran regime, there is little cause for celebration.
“Releasing some individuals among thousands who have been arrested during a few past months, doesn’t lead me to optimism,” notes Iranian documentary filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi (Profession: Documentarist). “Considering all these issues and censorship and restrictions we are facing with, there is a long process...
- 2/18/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
While the final five in the international category at the Oscars ended up being mostly Eurocentric, the shortlist was one of the most diverse. Especially notable are the number of edgy stories set in different Muslim societies.
They come not only from the Arab world such as Morocco’s submission “The Blue Caftan,” helmed by Maryam Touzani (“Adam”), but also Denmark with “The Holy Spider” from helmer Ali Abbasi (“Border”) and Sweden with “The Cairo Conspiracy” (ne “The Boy From Heaven”) directed by Tarik Saleh. There’s also Saim Sadiq’s debut feature, “Joyland,” from Pakistan, but it is a Pakistan-India-u.S. production.
For the past several decades, filmmaking in the Nordic countries has been enriched by first- and second-generation or emigré talents with a hyphenated identity. For example, Stockholm-born director-writer Saleh’s father is Egyptian and his mother is Swedish. He draws on that heritage, in particular that of his paternal grandfather,...
They come not only from the Arab world such as Morocco’s submission “The Blue Caftan,” helmed by Maryam Touzani (“Adam”), but also Denmark with “The Holy Spider” from helmer Ali Abbasi (“Border”) and Sweden with “The Cairo Conspiracy” (ne “The Boy From Heaven”) directed by Tarik Saleh. There’s also Saim Sadiq’s debut feature, “Joyland,” from Pakistan, but it is a Pakistan-India-u.S. production.
For the past several decades, filmmaking in the Nordic countries has been enriched by first- and second-generation or emigré talents with a hyphenated identity. For example, Stockholm-born director-writer Saleh’s father is Egyptian and his mother is Swedish. He draws on that heritage, in particular that of his paternal grandfather,...
- 2/8/2023
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
“Barzakh,” starring top Pakistani actors Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed, is the only South Asian selection at Series Mania this year.
The series will debut in the showcase’s International Panorama, a 12-title competitive section where it will be eligible for the best series, director, actress, actor, student jury and audience awards.
“Barzakh” (6 X 58′) is helmed by critically acclaimed director Asim Abbasi who also directed Zindagi’s first Pakistani original “Churails” and the feature film “Cake.” It is produced by Waqas Hassan and Shailja Kejriwal for Zindagi, the Indian subcontinent focused programming block on streamer ZEE5 Global.
The series is a family drama centered around an elderly man’s quest for love. It explores intergenerational trauma between fathers and sons. The narrative is framed within a fantastical world of supernatural beings and otherworldly events that reveal the chasms between life, death and rebirth.
“What does it mean to be human?...
The series will debut in the showcase’s International Panorama, a 12-title competitive section where it will be eligible for the best series, director, actress, actor, student jury and audience awards.
“Barzakh” (6 X 58′) is helmed by critically acclaimed director Asim Abbasi who also directed Zindagi’s first Pakistani original “Churails” and the feature film “Cake.” It is produced by Waqas Hassan and Shailja Kejriwal for Zindagi, the Indian subcontinent focused programming block on streamer ZEE5 Global.
The series is a family drama centered around an elderly man’s quest for love. It explores intergenerational trauma between fathers and sons. The narrative is framed within a fantastical world of supernatural beings and otherworldly events that reveal the chasms between life, death and rebirth.
“What does it mean to be human?...
- 2/8/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Iranian diaspora directors Ali Abbasi and Ana Lily Amirpour have keenly followed the wave of protests sparked in Iran by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for allegedly wearing a loose hijab. The filmmakers may not be in the thick of the protests, but they’re watching with a great sense of participation.
Abbasi’s film “Holy Spider,” about a family man named Saeed who becomes a serial killer as he embarks on a religious quest to “cleanse” the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of prostitutes, could not be more timely. The boundary-pushing thriller, which is short-listed for the international feature Oscar race (having been submitted by Denmark), is about a local female journalist, played by Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, who is trying to crack the case as she grows frustrated by police misogyny and apathy toward finding the murderer.
Amirpour’s feature films, “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,” which...
Abbasi’s film “Holy Spider,” about a family man named Saeed who becomes a serial killer as he embarks on a religious quest to “cleanse” the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of prostitutes, could not be more timely. The boundary-pushing thriller, which is short-listed for the international feature Oscar race (having been submitted by Denmark), is about a local female journalist, played by Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, who is trying to crack the case as she grows frustrated by police misogyny and apathy toward finding the murderer.
Amirpour’s feature films, “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,” which...
- 1/17/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Making a movie almost always means coming up against unforeseen challenges and figuring out how to work around them, but it's pretty rare that someone has to smuggle a prosthetic penis across international borders for the sake of cinema. The Iranian serial killer thriller "Holy Spider" faced a few difficulties in telling a brutally honest story about the dangers faced by women in the nation that feels even more horrifyingly relevant in the wake of the surge of protests in response to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the nation's morality police.
Director and co-writer Ali Abbasi knew that he wouldn't be able to film the movie in Iran, given the nation's strict decency laws, and they ended up settling on filming in Jordan, but there were still some concerns that wouldn't occur to filmmakers in Hollywood. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Abbasi...
Director and co-writer Ali Abbasi knew that he wouldn't be able to film the movie in Iran, given the nation's strict decency laws, and they ended up settling on filming in Jordan, but there were still some concerns that wouldn't occur to filmmakers in Hollywood. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Abbasi...
- 1/14/2023
- by Danielle Ryan
- Slash Film
Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we’ll shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week, we’re talking with German indie producer Sol Bondy of One Two Films. Bondy, whose credits include Angry Indian Goddesses and The Tale, most recently produced Iranian crime thriller Holy Spider which is Denmark’s submission to the 2023 Academy Awards and he tells us how challenging it was to get this impactful project off the ground.
A few days after Ali Abbasi’s second directorial effort Border premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018, Danish producer Jacob Jarek approached Sol Bondy to co-produce the Iranian helmer’s next project Holy Spider. Jarek, who had produced Abbasi’s debut feature Shelley, had previously worked with Bondy on Icelandic titles Under the Tree and The County and with beguiling body horror...
A few days after Ali Abbasi’s second directorial effort Border premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018, Danish producer Jacob Jarek approached Sol Bondy to co-produce the Iranian helmer’s next project Holy Spider. Jarek, who had produced Abbasi’s debut feature Shelley, had previously worked with Bondy on Icelandic titles Under the Tree and The County and with beguiling body horror...
- 1/12/2023
- by Diana Lodderhose
- Deadline Film + TV
As we have said before, and as the reality of a number of countries no one knew much about outside of their borders for decades, comes to the fore, the stories witnessed in documentaries are revealed to be ones that go beyond any kind of imagination (script if you prefer). Asian cinema in particular seems to thrive on both, as a region where life was never as “normal” as in the West, with the category, as a whole, including some of the best films we have seen during the last few years, 11 of which we include here.
Without further ado, here are the best Asian documentaries of 2022, in random order, and, as always, with a focus on diversity in style, directors, and country of origin. Some films may have premiered in 2021, but since they mostly circulated in 2022, we decided to include them.
1. Imad’s Childhood
Zahava Sanjavi followed the family closely for many years,...
Without further ado, here are the best Asian documentaries of 2022, in random order, and, as always, with a focus on diversity in style, directors, and country of origin. Some films may have premiered in 2021, but since they mostly circulated in 2022, we decided to include them.
1. Imad’s Childhood
Zahava Sanjavi followed the family closely for many years,...
- 1/10/2023
- by AMP Group
- AsianMoviePulse
Although Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider was made before the wave of protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the country’s morality police, there’s no doubt it has gained extra resonance as a result. It’s also worth noting, however, that one of the film’s tacit assertions - that police are much less interested in tracking down murderers if the victim is a street worker - is something that is not particular to Iran. In Britain, for example, you need only look at the Yorkshire Ripper case, where police only started to really take things seriously after, in their words “innocent young girls” and not just sex workers were murdered.
Abbasi draws on the real-life case of serial killer Saeed Hanaei - previously outlined in Mahiar Bahari’s documentary And Along Came A Spider and fictionalised in Ebrahim Irajzad’s...
Abbasi draws on the real-life case of serial killer Saeed Hanaei - previously outlined in Mahiar Bahari’s documentary And Along Came A Spider and fictionalised in Ebrahim Irajzad’s...
- 1/8/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi, the star of Ali Abbasi’s Oscar contender Holy Spider, will head up the Nordic competition jury at this year’s Goteborg Film Festival.
Ebrahimi, riding high following her star-making performance in Holy Spider, which won her the best actress honor in Cannes last year, will oversee the main competition section at Goteborg, Sweden’s leading film fest.
She’s joined on the 2023 Goteborg jury by Danish actress Sofie Grabol (The Killing), Ukrainian director Antonio Lukich (Luxembourg, Luxembourg) and Swedish film composer Matti Bye (The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared). The jury will pick the best films from this year’s festival from the Nordic regions. The nine films in the 2023 Nordic Competition lineup will be announced Jan. 10.
In Holy Spider, Ebrahimi plays an Iranian journalist trying to find a serial killer who has been targeting sex workers in Iran’s holy city of Mashhad.
Ebrahimi, riding high following her star-making performance in Holy Spider, which won her the best actress honor in Cannes last year, will oversee the main competition section at Goteborg, Sweden’s leading film fest.
She’s joined on the 2023 Goteborg jury by Danish actress Sofie Grabol (The Killing), Ukrainian director Antonio Lukich (Luxembourg, Luxembourg) and Swedish film composer Matti Bye (The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared). The jury will pick the best films from this year’s festival from the Nordic regions. The nine films in the 2023 Nordic Competition lineup will be announced Jan. 10.
In Holy Spider, Ebrahimi plays an Iranian journalist trying to find a serial killer who has been targeting sex workers in Iran’s holy city of Mashhad.
- 1/5/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Denmark’s Oscar© 2023 Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Holy Spider’ directed by Ali AbbasiThis crime genre drama labeled “Persian Noir” is based on a 20 year old case but is shockingly relevant, as is noted in this interview with producer Sol Bondy conducted by Marina Dallarosa.
US Theatrical Release October 28, 2022.
Producer Sol Bondy’s explanation of Holy Spider’s genesis and progress through the Covid infected era details the difficulties this film met at every step. However, once finished, it premiered in Cannes Competition and went on to play in the Jerusalem Film Festival, and in Toronto International Film Festival. He noted that the audience in Toronto; was 30–40% Iranians. Their ability to understand nuances and “code words” brought an element of laughter to an otherwise bloody crime film, labeled “Persian noir”.
The filmmaker Ali Abbasi is Iranian and lives in Denmark, the country submitting the film to the Motion Picture Academy for Oscar nomination. It could never have been shot in Iran due to its subject matter, though they did try, as they did in Turkey as well before shooting in Jordan. The production faced years of Covid‑19 surges, shooting delays, location changes and government resistance.
Holy Spider is based upon a true story of the infamous “spider killings” which took place while the director, Ali Abbasi, was living in the country between 2000 and 2001. It is produced by Germany’s Sol Bondy whose previous film Persian Lessons was also based on a provocative story and was Belarus’ 2020 submission for Oscars. Abbasi’s film Border was a Cannes winner of Un Certain Regard and 2018 Oscar nominated film.
A coproduction of Denmark, Germany, France, and Sweden, Holy Spider tells the story of Saeed Hanaei, a family man who embarks on his own religious quest to “cleanse” the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of immoral and corrupt street prostitutes. After murdering several women, he grows ever more desperate about the lack of public interest in his divine mission. In all, he murdered 16 women.
This genre film, with misogyny being the core theme, comes at a time where massive protests in Iran, following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini have unified the country in an unprecedented manner. While more and more protesters, many underage, are being killed by the regime, Holy Spider has met Iranian diaspora audiences with cheers.
During Cannes, film and TV funder Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburgcelebrated the six films that it funded running in the official program of the Cannes Film Festival. These were Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider in Competition, Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness in Competition, Emily Atef’s More Than Ever in Un Certain Regard, Mia Hansen-Løve’s Un beau matin in Directors’ Fortnight, Sergei Loznitsa’s The Natural History of Destruction in Special Screenings, and Mantas Kvedaravicius’ Mariupolis 2, in Special Screenings. Commenting on the role Medienboard played in funding these films in Cannes, the organization’s chief Kirsten Niehuus said: “Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and other film funds play an important role in sustaining high quality cinema in Europe and in international co-productions around the world.”
At their celebration, I spoke with one of the most outstanding young actresses who played Zinab, a sex worker in the Holy Spider. German-based, Iran-born Sara Fazilat is also German Film’s Face To Face ambassador 2022. She is also the lead cast in Nico by Eline Gehring that was shown almost worldwide at numerous film festivals. Unfortunately Nico is not available online in the U.S…yet. It is about Nico who is enjoying the summer in Berlin with her best friend Rosa until a racist attack pulls her out of her carefree everyday life. Traumatized by the crime, the geriatric nurse decides never to be a victim again and begins to train with a karate world champion.
I also saw Sol Bondy of One Two Films, one of the lead producers of Holy Spider. Produced along with Jacob Jarek of Denmark’s Profile Pictures, coproducers were Nordisk Film Production, Wild Bunch International, Film i Väst, Why Not Productions, Zdf/Arte and Arte France Cinéma.
Sol Bondy and Jacob Jarek also stand out as alumni of Berlinale Talents. They both co-produced Icelandic films The County and Under The Tree previously.
Jarek, who went to the National Film School of Denmark with Abbasi and was one of the producers of his debut feature Shelley, says the director “had this story in his mind for a long time but we officially started developing it in 2016”. After Abbasi’s second feature Border was an international success at Cannes and beyond in 2018, the filmmaker was in demand. He told Jarek, “Now’s our chance to make Holy Spider,” a project always close to his heart.
An Interview with Sol Bondy by Marina Dalarossa
Marina: So the first question is just about you and the producer Jakob Jarek. Could you talk a bit about how you actually came to work together?
Sol: We didn’t do the Berlinale Talents the same year. I did it relatively late in my career, and truthfully, mainly because of the woman who runs the program, she urged me to do it. I had worked for the talents for many, many years and quite a few of my friends had done it during film school and by the time I did it, I’d been out of film school running my company for 6 years already.
But we didn’t meet there. Jakob and I were both minor coproducers on an Icelandic film called Under the Tree. That’s how we met. And then we also were both minor coproducers on another Icelandic film called The County.
We knew of each other before, I knew some people that he worked with and thought they were doing really interesting films. And then in Cannes 2018, Border had just premiered a couple of days before, everybody was talking about it and Jakob asked me if I wanted to join the next film of Ali? I didn’t read a script or ask any questions; I also didn’t know what I was getting myself into but I said yes immediately. I sensed this could be a great opportunity.
And that instinct was right. The film was financed relatively quickly and within a year we had most of the budget together. But then Covid came. I’m sure we’ll get into that later!
Marina: Yes thanks. I want to know if you think being in Talents helped your career at all?
Sol: Well, given the very specific timing of it, I think it would have helped my career much more if I had done it earlier. But there are also other great intiatives out there, postgraduate training for producers. Before Talents, I did a program called Transatlantic Partners in 2013. That was really helpful and actually generated two big projects for me. One was Angry Indian Goddessesand the other was The Tale.
A couple of years later I did a program called Inside Pictures. It was also extremely valuable and really helped me make some really important business decisions going forward. Jacob also did this program but again, in another year. There are many great initiatives. Also I’ve always loved going to festivals. They make your network bigger and stronger.
Marina: You talked about how you came on board to produce Holy Spider, but what do you think made Jakob decide you should come in at that point?
Sol: He had a hard task producing and financing a film set in the Middle East without any Middle Eastern money. Also, with this topic it was clear you can’t just roll into Iran and make a film there.
On top of that, there had been a shift in the Danish government. Suddenly, to reach a certain amount of financing from the Danish Film Institute, the film had to be culturally relevant to Denmark. So I believe that halved the financing opportunities for Jacob in Denmark. He needed money from outside Denmark to make this film; he needed coproducers.
He’s well versed in international coproductions, so he knew when is a good time to attach coproducing partners and also how much time it can take. For instance, we often get approached with projects and they tell us they will be shooting in three months. We have to tell them that when we coproduce in Germany, we have deadlines and a lot of bureaucracy, so while we can do a lot — we’re very lucky with that — it still takes time.
To get back to the first question: We were ready to go, we had the budget we thought we needed to make the film and when Covid came and then Jakob found himself in a situation where two of his projects, a series and a feature film, were hit by Covid. And it was unclear how these massive losses were going to be covered. The world was in turmoil and Jakob’s projects in limbo.
It became clear, he could currently not commit to the project — such a challenging production by a very demanding director. Ali (the director) on the other hand, who could have chosen any project after his widely successful and much loved Border, was saying, “Guys, I get it, but I don’t care about circumstances. If you guys can’t figure out how we can make this film now, then it’s over, I’m out.”
And that put me under maximum pressure because making films is squarey our only source of income. I had three employees to pay, was expecting my second child, and at that pont, we didn’t know that the German government would be helping out companies like ours. Without this film, it seemed I would have to close my shop. So Jacob and I looked at what options we had and decided I would go for it. I didn’t know how, I didn’t know when, but I said, Ok, I’ll do it.
What was unfortunate at that time is that Jordan, during the first wave, basically closed the borders and would not let anyone in. So the country that we had scouted and wanted to shoot in was essentially shut down. We couldn’t really plan a production there because nobody knew when the borders would open again or if they might close again at some point.
So it was decided to go to Turkey. It didn’t look like Erdogan was going to close Turkey. So we went into Turkey and we scouted for weeks with a big crew, the cinematographer, the production designer, the line producers from Germany, the Turkish line producer who we hired to service the production. There was a big gang scouting different cities in Turkey. And although it was harder to match Iran, we found the right locations a couple of weeks later.
The crew was growing; we were exploring how to bring period cars over the border. Pre-production was basically in full swing, at the same time, we were waiting for a shooting permit, and this shooting permit never came. So I decided to do some more digging because this was making me very uncomfortable. I knew I couldn’t shoot without the permit. I was about to spend a significant amount of more money and I’d already spent around €50,000. Not being able to shoot the film in Turkey would mean that money would just be down the drain. Plus the entire production plan. You can imagine, with everything there, where we came from, the delays that we had already encountered, it was nerve-wracking.
We then basically found out behind the scenes that our application had gone from the Ministry of Culture to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Turkish Ambassador and he got the feedback that this film should not be supported.
I then took Ali and my two line producers and we flew to Ankara to meet with the Ministry of Culture. And they told us to speak to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The next day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told us that to get shooting permits we hd to speak with the Ministry of Culture. They basically used us like a pinball. We realiaed that we had been censored in Turkey. And it was a huge blow. I fet so hepless. Everyone was upset. Ali was furious.
It took some time to get the whole demoralized team back into the mental state to give it another go back in Jordan, where the borders had re-opened but which was logistically much more complicated.
And we went for it. We found new locations, hired local crews, got visas for our Iranian players and even managed to import Iranian cars to Jordan. You could make a documentary feature about just this aspect of the production of importing these cars. They arrived after a huge delay, when we were already shooting, but we managed to make it work.
Marina: This sounds intense. Were there other significant issues?
One of the most challenging aspects of the film was the casting, which was very complex, as we were mainly looking for Iranians who didn’t live in Iran. We knew participating in this film would be challenging for their future in the country. But Ali was adamant that his two main roles needed to be perfect in terms of their body language and the dialect. So we essentially needed people from Iran. We had found two who were willing to take the risk with all the consequences even potentially relocating after the shoot. The lead actress finally came for the makeup and hair test about 10 days before shooting. Couple days later she came to my hotel room crying and said, “I can’t do it. It’s too much.”
So we were a week before shooting and we didn’t have a lead actress. It was another massive blow. And this is when it was decided after bit of back and forth and deliberation that our casting director Zar Amir-Ebrahimi would step in and play the role. And she was rewarded in Cannes with the Best Actress Golden Palm. It’s a pretty crazy story.
And then, just two days before we were Finally going to shoot the film, Covid hit us in a way where couldn’t start shooting. I felt like I didn’t know if I was making a film or if I was in “Lost in La Mancha — Part 2”. My wife for months kept telling me I should have a documentary crew filming all this madness. I told her I was going to murder someone if I had a documentary crew around.
Marina: Wow! And after the film was completed, Denmark’s decided to submit your film to the Academy Awards. Do you know what went into their decision?
Sol: Well, the Danes may have one of the best track records in recent years when it comes to choosing the film and then being nominated or even winning. I think in the last 11 years they won twice. They got 7 nominations and I think 9 made the shortlist.
So this speaks to two things: First of all, the quality of the films they make in this small country. And then, they really look carefully at which films has the biggest chances. In our case: no other Danish film had been to Cannes competition. No other film had US distribution and played Telluride and TIFF. And already in Cannes, we had the fantastic PR of past successes like Drive My Car and Flee, so it made a lot of sense for them to choose Holy Spider. It’s still a very brave choice because it’s not a very Danish film on the outside. On the inside it looks different, you know the composer is Danish, the editor is Danish, the production designer, ok she’s Swedish, but Ali also has a Danish passport. Jakob is like me, a delegate producer and is Danish. So it has a strong Danish footprint.
Many outlets, like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter included the film in their predictions to get the nomination. So I guess all this helped the Danes come to this decision.
Marina: How does it feel to be chosen by the Danes and also to be chosen for Cannes and have gotten so many prizes already?
Sol: What can I say? It feels great! At the same time, it’s also a lot of hard work. And it’s something that we always had our eyes upon, also because Border won the Un Certain Regard. So after that, the next step is to be in Cannes Competition. Now I’ve seen this go both ways, The Icelandic film where Jacob and I were minority producers together: the filmmaker had previously done the film Rams, which had also won Un Certain Regard. We all hoped to go to Cannes Competition with this new film, The County. But we didn’t get into Cannes at all. We premiered in Toronto, which is good, but it’s not the same So looking coldly at that, you could say we failed.
Another example would be a finished film, that I was happy to be a coproducer on, called The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki . It won Un Certain Regard the year after Rams did. And so the director wanted his next film, Compartment No. 6, to go to Cannes Competition — and it did. It even won the Jury Prize! Sadly, I wasn’t involved in that production.
This is something we were discussing throughout this entire production. We were always saying the film was our chance to show the world Ali was not a one-hit wonder. You know, many people refer to Border as Ali’s first film, which it’s not. It’s his second film, his first film Shelley did well, but it wasn’t a massive breakout hit like Border was. It’s hard to follow up on a success like that.
So that fact that we succeeded in following up the Certain Regard win with getting into Competition was very exciting and rewarding. I also have to give credit to our French co-producers Wild Bunch and Why Not Productions. While they didn’t really have a lot to do with the physical production, they really helped in securing the world premiere. They gave us invaluable advice in the last stretch.
I can say that until now, we have achieved every goal that we had, and there are a few exciting steps ahead. The US release had a great limited opening weekend, the nominations at the European Film Awards are coming up and then there’s of course the Oscar shortlist of 15 films just before Christmas. We’re crossing our fingers!
Marina: I also have to ask, with the recent events in Iran, was this something you were thinking of making the film?
Sol: Well no, of course not! But the fact that our film is based on a 20 year old case — and has become so shockingly timely is incredible. Showing the film at festivals where many Iranians attend has been such an intense experience. People have thanked us for our courage to finally make a film that shows a (big) portion of their reality, one they don’t get to see in Iranian cinema. And of course the film’s main theme, misogyny, is squarely what is firing up this revolution in Iran. It really feels like the days of the Islamic Republic will be over, the different groups withing the Iranian society are more united then ever before, men are supporting women on the street and the next generation isn’t willing to give up. It’s insane what is happening there and honestly, more people should be talking about this. They are killing teenagers in the street.
Marina: The next couple questions I want to ask you are more general about your career. What did you think when you chose your career?
Sol: My parents are both filmmakers, but I never really cared too much about their work. I was quite oblivious to what was what was going on right in front of me.
But through my parents connections, I was cast as a child actor and did quite a bit of acting, so I always thought that after high school I would become an actor. But then I realized maybe I should also look for something behind the camera, because I remembered as a child actor, people were so nice and the jobs seemed fun and interesting and so I did an internship. And it became clear to me that I needed to become a director! I thought this would be the perfect way to combine all my talents.
It took three or four years and a lot of failed applications for directing to realize that I would not be studying film directing at any film school. But Reinhad Hauff, the head of the dffb, the Berlin Film School, said at some point after my second failed application that he thought I might be good for his producing class. And that’s how I got into producing after never having given it a thought before.
And I really came to terms with my profession the end of my second year while working with this one director, Grzegorz Muskala, I realized if I could find people like him, with an exceptional level of talent and tenacity and foresight I could be the right person to support them. I just needed to be very picky about who I chose to work with.
On the other hand, I also realized I have a real knack for distribution, because many producing students in my film school would just produce a film and then they would just produce the next film. And this was always crazy for me, because when the film is finished, finding distribution for your film is the most exciting moment. Like now we can do something, even for shorts! We can take the film to festivals, we can sell it to TV, this is the fun part. Of course you need to have the right film.
But I quickly earned a reputation of being somebody who took very good care of his films. All my films went to many festivals and won awards and did well. So at the end of my studies I graduated with a 1.2 million feature, which was a big achievement at that time, this was 2010. I also launched my company more or less at the same time. Since then we’ve produced or coproduced 16 films.
Marina: What do you think drives you now to continue?
Sol: There was a moment, a couple of years ago where I realized I needed to shift gears. I separated from my previous business partner with whom I had had set up the company. We built the company together, but I realized our visions weren’t really aligned anymore. I had this urge to do slightly bigger films and my little family was growing and I simply needed to make more money — while staying true to the films that I love.
So rather than diversifying with many small projects, I wanted to make fewer films but larger ones. That is also a bigger risk in a way. I wanted to take it a bit slower than the previous 10 years. Maybe also because my wife is a filmmaker. We’ve had two kids, and now it’s also her turn to go to the forefront and make more films.
Marina: And so now I guess one could say you’ve kind of made it to the top or at least you’ve checked off all those goals that you wanted to reach.
Sol: Everything that has happened with Holy Spider is really great. And having a film in Cannes Competition is quite special — who knows if it’s going to happen again? So maybe, maybe this is the top.
Marina: Do you have different kinds of goals now?
Sol: No I think I have similar goals. I like to aim high. I’m ambitious. But I also know what’s within reach. I wouldn’t set goals that are completely unrealistic in that sense.
Marina: And can you talk about what you are working on right now, so that we can start tracking it?
Sol: Yeah, so Northern Comfort is a is a fear of flying comedy by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson, the same Icelandic director of Under the Tree. And this is his English language debut because his previous films have been remade in the US. We thought, why not just shoot in English language in the first place?
A diverse group of people with a chronic fear of flying are stranded in the wintry north. That film is a lot of fun for a change! And I know there’s appetite in the market for comedies. We’re in the final stages of postproduction and hoping to show the film sometime early next year.
Köln 75 is our real passion project. It’s set in Germany. The story came to us through Oren Moverman who approached us because we had worked on The Tale together. He felt that we would be the right people to be producing this. It’s a beautiful and inspiring great true story about a 17 year old school girl who organizes one of the the world’s most famous concerts on German soil, the Cologne concert from Keith Jarrett in 1975 which is widely regarded as his masterpiece and sold nearly 5 mil. copies worldwide. It really was the soundtrack of an entire generation. So it’s really exciting. An uplifting and fun story with a fantastic script by Ido Fluk. We already have amazing partners to work on this film.
Marina: Is it different now working on German soil?
Sol: Well it’s not the first time, but it’s the first time in a couple years and it is different, yes. Production has exploded across the world with the arrival of the streamers. In Germany we really feel it. All the actors, all the crews, everybody is just like working like crazy. So you could say of course it’s a great time to be a producer. But for us it’s always hard to make a film. Always has been, always will be, there are really no free rides if you’re producing independent films.
Marina: And last question, what advice do you have for young filmmakers?
Sol: The most simple and striking advice that I received myself at some point, though at first I nearly missed it, was from Katriel Schory who ran the film fund in Israel for a long time.
Sydney knows him well I’m sure.
He gave this one inspirational speech at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2006, when I was a film student. He said the most important thing for a producer is you always have to be nice, open and friendly. And I was like, well yeah… But the way that he explained it got to me. He said that everybody who’s in a certain position of power has a free choice who he wants to work with.
And these people are always going to choose to work with the people who are nice, open and friendly and if you are that person and if you are nice, open and friendly all the time, then you’re just more likely to climb the steps of your career. And at the same time you will make this industry a better place to work in.
I found it very compelling and striking and I’ve realized that that really is what brings you forward. And so I always tried to be that person. I haven’t thought about it in a long time, so I wonder if maybe I’ve lost it a little bit on the way. Producing Holy Spider was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and has surely made me very cynical at times, but that is definitely a good piece of advice for young filmmaker, I think.
Holy Spider, 115 minutes
Germany, Denmark, France, Sweden
Directed by: Ali Abbasi
Screenplay: Ali Abbasi, Afshin Kamran Bahrami
Cast: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Mehdi Bajestani, Arash Ashtiani, Forouzan Jamshidnejad, Nima Akbarpour, Sara Fazilat, Sina Parvaneh, Alice Rahimi, Mesbah Taleb
Cinematography by: Nadim Carlsen
Film Editing: Olivia Neergaard-Holm
Production Designer: Lina Nordqvist
Costumes Cesigner: Hanadi Khurma
Music: Martin Dirkov
Produced by: Sol Bondy, Jacob Jarek
Co-producers: Fred Burle, Eva Åkergren, Vincent Maraval, Calle Marthin, Peter Possne, Olivier Père, Rémi Burah
Production Cos: Profile Pictures, One Two Films, Why Not Productions, Nordisk Film Production Ab
Backing: Danish Film Institute, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Moin Filmförderung, Dfff, Ffa, Nordisk Film + TV Fund, Swedish Film Institute, Eurimages, Film I Väst, Zdf, Arte, Arte France Cinéma
Isa Wild Bunch has thus far sold Holy Spider to Utopia for U.S., Cinéart for Benelux, A-One Films Baltic for Baltics, Academy 2 ror Italy, Alamode Filmsfor Germany, BTeam Pictures for Spain, Bir Film for Turkey, Camera Film for Denmark, Canibal for Mexico, Cinobo for Greece, Edko Films for Hong Kong, Falcon Pictures for Indonesia, Film Europe for Czechia and Slovakia, Fivia/Cenex for Yugoslavia, Gaga for Japan, Gutek Film for Poland, Independenta Film for Romania, Karma for Spain, Metropolitan Filmexportfor France, Mubi for UK Ireland, Malaysia, India; Nordisk and Mer for Norway, Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais for Portugal, Pancinema for South Korea, United King Films for Israel, Vertigo for Hungary, Xenix for Switzerland, Front Row for Mena.
US Theatrical Release October 28, 2022.
Producer Sol Bondy’s explanation of Holy Spider’s genesis and progress through the Covid infected era details the difficulties this film met at every step. However, once finished, it premiered in Cannes Competition and went on to play in the Jerusalem Film Festival, and in Toronto International Film Festival. He noted that the audience in Toronto; was 30–40% Iranians. Their ability to understand nuances and “code words” brought an element of laughter to an otherwise bloody crime film, labeled “Persian noir”.
The filmmaker Ali Abbasi is Iranian and lives in Denmark, the country submitting the film to the Motion Picture Academy for Oscar nomination. It could never have been shot in Iran due to its subject matter, though they did try, as they did in Turkey as well before shooting in Jordan. The production faced years of Covid‑19 surges, shooting delays, location changes and government resistance.
Holy Spider is based upon a true story of the infamous “spider killings” which took place while the director, Ali Abbasi, was living in the country between 2000 and 2001. It is produced by Germany’s Sol Bondy whose previous film Persian Lessons was also based on a provocative story and was Belarus’ 2020 submission for Oscars. Abbasi’s film Border was a Cannes winner of Un Certain Regard and 2018 Oscar nominated film.
A coproduction of Denmark, Germany, France, and Sweden, Holy Spider tells the story of Saeed Hanaei, a family man who embarks on his own religious quest to “cleanse” the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of immoral and corrupt street prostitutes. After murdering several women, he grows ever more desperate about the lack of public interest in his divine mission. In all, he murdered 16 women.
This genre film, with misogyny being the core theme, comes at a time where massive protests in Iran, following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini have unified the country in an unprecedented manner. While more and more protesters, many underage, are being killed by the regime, Holy Spider has met Iranian diaspora audiences with cheers.
During Cannes, film and TV funder Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburgcelebrated the six films that it funded running in the official program of the Cannes Film Festival. These were Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider in Competition, Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness in Competition, Emily Atef’s More Than Ever in Un Certain Regard, Mia Hansen-Løve’s Un beau matin in Directors’ Fortnight, Sergei Loznitsa’s The Natural History of Destruction in Special Screenings, and Mantas Kvedaravicius’ Mariupolis 2, in Special Screenings. Commenting on the role Medienboard played in funding these films in Cannes, the organization’s chief Kirsten Niehuus said: “Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and other film funds play an important role in sustaining high quality cinema in Europe and in international co-productions around the world.”
At their celebration, I spoke with one of the most outstanding young actresses who played Zinab, a sex worker in the Holy Spider. German-based, Iran-born Sara Fazilat is also German Film’s Face To Face ambassador 2022. She is also the lead cast in Nico by Eline Gehring that was shown almost worldwide at numerous film festivals. Unfortunately Nico is not available online in the U.S…yet. It is about Nico who is enjoying the summer in Berlin with her best friend Rosa until a racist attack pulls her out of her carefree everyday life. Traumatized by the crime, the geriatric nurse decides never to be a victim again and begins to train with a karate world champion.
I also saw Sol Bondy of One Two Films, one of the lead producers of Holy Spider. Produced along with Jacob Jarek of Denmark’s Profile Pictures, coproducers were Nordisk Film Production, Wild Bunch International, Film i Väst, Why Not Productions, Zdf/Arte and Arte France Cinéma.
Sol Bondy and Jacob Jarek also stand out as alumni of Berlinale Talents. They both co-produced Icelandic films The County and Under The Tree previously.
Jarek, who went to the National Film School of Denmark with Abbasi and was one of the producers of his debut feature Shelley, says the director “had this story in his mind for a long time but we officially started developing it in 2016”. After Abbasi’s second feature Border was an international success at Cannes and beyond in 2018, the filmmaker was in demand. He told Jarek, “Now’s our chance to make Holy Spider,” a project always close to his heart.
An Interview with Sol Bondy by Marina Dalarossa
Marina: So the first question is just about you and the producer Jakob Jarek. Could you talk a bit about how you actually came to work together?
Sol: We didn’t do the Berlinale Talents the same year. I did it relatively late in my career, and truthfully, mainly because of the woman who runs the program, she urged me to do it. I had worked for the talents for many, many years and quite a few of my friends had done it during film school and by the time I did it, I’d been out of film school running my company for 6 years already.
But we didn’t meet there. Jakob and I were both minor coproducers on an Icelandic film called Under the Tree. That’s how we met. And then we also were both minor coproducers on another Icelandic film called The County.
We knew of each other before, I knew some people that he worked with and thought they were doing really interesting films. And then in Cannes 2018, Border had just premiered a couple of days before, everybody was talking about it and Jakob asked me if I wanted to join the next film of Ali? I didn’t read a script or ask any questions; I also didn’t know what I was getting myself into but I said yes immediately. I sensed this could be a great opportunity.
And that instinct was right. The film was financed relatively quickly and within a year we had most of the budget together. But then Covid came. I’m sure we’ll get into that later!
Marina: Yes thanks. I want to know if you think being in Talents helped your career at all?
Sol: Well, given the very specific timing of it, I think it would have helped my career much more if I had done it earlier. But there are also other great intiatives out there, postgraduate training for producers. Before Talents, I did a program called Transatlantic Partners in 2013. That was really helpful and actually generated two big projects for me. One was Angry Indian Goddessesand the other was The Tale.
A couple of years later I did a program called Inside Pictures. It was also extremely valuable and really helped me make some really important business decisions going forward. Jacob also did this program but again, in another year. There are many great initiatives. Also I’ve always loved going to festivals. They make your network bigger and stronger.
Marina: You talked about how you came on board to produce Holy Spider, but what do you think made Jakob decide you should come in at that point?
Sol: He had a hard task producing and financing a film set in the Middle East without any Middle Eastern money. Also, with this topic it was clear you can’t just roll into Iran and make a film there.
On top of that, there had been a shift in the Danish government. Suddenly, to reach a certain amount of financing from the Danish Film Institute, the film had to be culturally relevant to Denmark. So I believe that halved the financing opportunities for Jacob in Denmark. He needed money from outside Denmark to make this film; he needed coproducers.
He’s well versed in international coproductions, so he knew when is a good time to attach coproducing partners and also how much time it can take. For instance, we often get approached with projects and they tell us they will be shooting in three months. We have to tell them that when we coproduce in Germany, we have deadlines and a lot of bureaucracy, so while we can do a lot — we’re very lucky with that — it still takes time.
To get back to the first question: We were ready to go, we had the budget we thought we needed to make the film and when Covid came and then Jakob found himself in a situation where two of his projects, a series and a feature film, were hit by Covid. And it was unclear how these massive losses were going to be covered. The world was in turmoil and Jakob’s projects in limbo.
It became clear, he could currently not commit to the project — such a challenging production by a very demanding director. Ali (the director) on the other hand, who could have chosen any project after his widely successful and much loved Border, was saying, “Guys, I get it, but I don’t care about circumstances. If you guys can’t figure out how we can make this film now, then it’s over, I’m out.”
And that put me under maximum pressure because making films is squarey our only source of income. I had three employees to pay, was expecting my second child, and at that pont, we didn’t know that the German government would be helping out companies like ours. Without this film, it seemed I would have to close my shop. So Jacob and I looked at what options we had and decided I would go for it. I didn’t know how, I didn’t know when, but I said, Ok, I’ll do it.
What was unfortunate at that time is that Jordan, during the first wave, basically closed the borders and would not let anyone in. So the country that we had scouted and wanted to shoot in was essentially shut down. We couldn’t really plan a production there because nobody knew when the borders would open again or if they might close again at some point.
So it was decided to go to Turkey. It didn’t look like Erdogan was going to close Turkey. So we went into Turkey and we scouted for weeks with a big crew, the cinematographer, the production designer, the line producers from Germany, the Turkish line producer who we hired to service the production. There was a big gang scouting different cities in Turkey. And although it was harder to match Iran, we found the right locations a couple of weeks later.
The crew was growing; we were exploring how to bring period cars over the border. Pre-production was basically in full swing, at the same time, we were waiting for a shooting permit, and this shooting permit never came. So I decided to do some more digging because this was making me very uncomfortable. I knew I couldn’t shoot without the permit. I was about to spend a significant amount of more money and I’d already spent around €50,000. Not being able to shoot the film in Turkey would mean that money would just be down the drain. Plus the entire production plan. You can imagine, with everything there, where we came from, the delays that we had already encountered, it was nerve-wracking.
We then basically found out behind the scenes that our application had gone from the Ministry of Culture to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Turkish Ambassador and he got the feedback that this film should not be supported.
I then took Ali and my two line producers and we flew to Ankara to meet with the Ministry of Culture. And they told us to speak to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The next day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told us that to get shooting permits we hd to speak with the Ministry of Culture. They basically used us like a pinball. We realiaed that we had been censored in Turkey. And it was a huge blow. I fet so hepless. Everyone was upset. Ali was furious.
It took some time to get the whole demoralized team back into the mental state to give it another go back in Jordan, where the borders had re-opened but which was logistically much more complicated.
And we went for it. We found new locations, hired local crews, got visas for our Iranian players and even managed to import Iranian cars to Jordan. You could make a documentary feature about just this aspect of the production of importing these cars. They arrived after a huge delay, when we were already shooting, but we managed to make it work.
Marina: This sounds intense. Were there other significant issues?
One of the most challenging aspects of the film was the casting, which was very complex, as we were mainly looking for Iranians who didn’t live in Iran. We knew participating in this film would be challenging for their future in the country. But Ali was adamant that his two main roles needed to be perfect in terms of their body language and the dialect. So we essentially needed people from Iran. We had found two who were willing to take the risk with all the consequences even potentially relocating after the shoot. The lead actress finally came for the makeup and hair test about 10 days before shooting. Couple days later she came to my hotel room crying and said, “I can’t do it. It’s too much.”
So we were a week before shooting and we didn’t have a lead actress. It was another massive blow. And this is when it was decided after bit of back and forth and deliberation that our casting director Zar Amir-Ebrahimi would step in and play the role. And she was rewarded in Cannes with the Best Actress Golden Palm. It’s a pretty crazy story.
And then, just two days before we were Finally going to shoot the film, Covid hit us in a way where couldn’t start shooting. I felt like I didn’t know if I was making a film or if I was in “Lost in La Mancha — Part 2”. My wife for months kept telling me I should have a documentary crew filming all this madness. I told her I was going to murder someone if I had a documentary crew around.
Marina: Wow! And after the film was completed, Denmark’s decided to submit your film to the Academy Awards. Do you know what went into their decision?
Sol: Well, the Danes may have one of the best track records in recent years when it comes to choosing the film and then being nominated or even winning. I think in the last 11 years they won twice. They got 7 nominations and I think 9 made the shortlist.
So this speaks to two things: First of all, the quality of the films they make in this small country. And then, they really look carefully at which films has the biggest chances. In our case: no other Danish film had been to Cannes competition. No other film had US distribution and played Telluride and TIFF. And already in Cannes, we had the fantastic PR of past successes like Drive My Car and Flee, so it made a lot of sense for them to choose Holy Spider. It’s still a very brave choice because it’s not a very Danish film on the outside. On the inside it looks different, you know the composer is Danish, the editor is Danish, the production designer, ok she’s Swedish, but Ali also has a Danish passport. Jakob is like me, a delegate producer and is Danish. So it has a strong Danish footprint.
Many outlets, like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter included the film in their predictions to get the nomination. So I guess all this helped the Danes come to this decision.
Marina: How does it feel to be chosen by the Danes and also to be chosen for Cannes and have gotten so many prizes already?
Sol: What can I say? It feels great! At the same time, it’s also a lot of hard work. And it’s something that we always had our eyes upon, also because Border won the Un Certain Regard. So after that, the next step is to be in Cannes Competition. Now I’ve seen this go both ways, The Icelandic film where Jacob and I were minority producers together: the filmmaker had previously done the film Rams, which had also won Un Certain Regard. We all hoped to go to Cannes Competition with this new film, The County. But we didn’t get into Cannes at all. We premiered in Toronto, which is good, but it’s not the same So looking coldly at that, you could say we failed.
Another example would be a finished film, that I was happy to be a coproducer on, called The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki . It won Un Certain Regard the year after Rams did. And so the director wanted his next film, Compartment No. 6, to go to Cannes Competition — and it did. It even won the Jury Prize! Sadly, I wasn’t involved in that production.
This is something we were discussing throughout this entire production. We were always saying the film was our chance to show the world Ali was not a one-hit wonder. You know, many people refer to Border as Ali’s first film, which it’s not. It’s his second film, his first film Shelley did well, but it wasn’t a massive breakout hit like Border was. It’s hard to follow up on a success like that.
So that fact that we succeeded in following up the Certain Regard win with getting into Competition was very exciting and rewarding. I also have to give credit to our French co-producers Wild Bunch and Why Not Productions. While they didn’t really have a lot to do with the physical production, they really helped in securing the world premiere. They gave us invaluable advice in the last stretch.
I can say that until now, we have achieved every goal that we had, and there are a few exciting steps ahead. The US release had a great limited opening weekend, the nominations at the European Film Awards are coming up and then there’s of course the Oscar shortlist of 15 films just before Christmas. We’re crossing our fingers!
Marina: I also have to ask, with the recent events in Iran, was this something you were thinking of making the film?
Sol: Well no, of course not! But the fact that our film is based on a 20 year old case — and has become so shockingly timely is incredible. Showing the film at festivals where many Iranians attend has been such an intense experience. People have thanked us for our courage to finally make a film that shows a (big) portion of their reality, one they don’t get to see in Iranian cinema. And of course the film’s main theme, misogyny, is squarely what is firing up this revolution in Iran. It really feels like the days of the Islamic Republic will be over, the different groups withing the Iranian society are more united then ever before, men are supporting women on the street and the next generation isn’t willing to give up. It’s insane what is happening there and honestly, more people should be talking about this. They are killing teenagers in the street.
Marina: The next couple questions I want to ask you are more general about your career. What did you think when you chose your career?
Sol: My parents are both filmmakers, but I never really cared too much about their work. I was quite oblivious to what was what was going on right in front of me.
But through my parents connections, I was cast as a child actor and did quite a bit of acting, so I always thought that after high school I would become an actor. But then I realized maybe I should also look for something behind the camera, because I remembered as a child actor, people were so nice and the jobs seemed fun and interesting and so I did an internship. And it became clear to me that I needed to become a director! I thought this would be the perfect way to combine all my talents.
It took three or four years and a lot of failed applications for directing to realize that I would not be studying film directing at any film school. But Reinhad Hauff, the head of the dffb, the Berlin Film School, said at some point after my second failed application that he thought I might be good for his producing class. And that’s how I got into producing after never having given it a thought before.
And I really came to terms with my profession the end of my second year while working with this one director, Grzegorz Muskala, I realized if I could find people like him, with an exceptional level of talent and tenacity and foresight I could be the right person to support them. I just needed to be very picky about who I chose to work with.
On the other hand, I also realized I have a real knack for distribution, because many producing students in my film school would just produce a film and then they would just produce the next film. And this was always crazy for me, because when the film is finished, finding distribution for your film is the most exciting moment. Like now we can do something, even for shorts! We can take the film to festivals, we can sell it to TV, this is the fun part. Of course you need to have the right film.
But I quickly earned a reputation of being somebody who took very good care of his films. All my films went to many festivals and won awards and did well. So at the end of my studies I graduated with a 1.2 million feature, which was a big achievement at that time, this was 2010. I also launched my company more or less at the same time. Since then we’ve produced or coproduced 16 films.
Marina: What do you think drives you now to continue?
Sol: There was a moment, a couple of years ago where I realized I needed to shift gears. I separated from my previous business partner with whom I had had set up the company. We built the company together, but I realized our visions weren’t really aligned anymore. I had this urge to do slightly bigger films and my little family was growing and I simply needed to make more money — while staying true to the films that I love.
So rather than diversifying with many small projects, I wanted to make fewer films but larger ones. That is also a bigger risk in a way. I wanted to take it a bit slower than the previous 10 years. Maybe also because my wife is a filmmaker. We’ve had two kids, and now it’s also her turn to go to the forefront and make more films.
Marina: And so now I guess one could say you’ve kind of made it to the top or at least you’ve checked off all those goals that you wanted to reach.
Sol: Everything that has happened with Holy Spider is really great. And having a film in Cannes Competition is quite special — who knows if it’s going to happen again? So maybe, maybe this is the top.
Marina: Do you have different kinds of goals now?
Sol: No I think I have similar goals. I like to aim high. I’m ambitious. But I also know what’s within reach. I wouldn’t set goals that are completely unrealistic in that sense.
Marina: And can you talk about what you are working on right now, so that we can start tracking it?
Sol: Yeah, so Northern Comfort is a is a fear of flying comedy by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson, the same Icelandic director of Under the Tree. And this is his English language debut because his previous films have been remade in the US. We thought, why not just shoot in English language in the first place?
A diverse group of people with a chronic fear of flying are stranded in the wintry north. That film is a lot of fun for a change! And I know there’s appetite in the market for comedies. We’re in the final stages of postproduction and hoping to show the film sometime early next year.
Köln 75 is our real passion project. It’s set in Germany. The story came to us through Oren Moverman who approached us because we had worked on The Tale together. He felt that we would be the right people to be producing this. It’s a beautiful and inspiring great true story about a 17 year old school girl who organizes one of the the world’s most famous concerts on German soil, the Cologne concert from Keith Jarrett in 1975 which is widely regarded as his masterpiece and sold nearly 5 mil. copies worldwide. It really was the soundtrack of an entire generation. So it’s really exciting. An uplifting and fun story with a fantastic script by Ido Fluk. We already have amazing partners to work on this film.
Marina: Is it different now working on German soil?
Sol: Well it’s not the first time, but it’s the first time in a couple years and it is different, yes. Production has exploded across the world with the arrival of the streamers. In Germany we really feel it. All the actors, all the crews, everybody is just like working like crazy. So you could say of course it’s a great time to be a producer. But for us it’s always hard to make a film. Always has been, always will be, there are really no free rides if you’re producing independent films.
Marina: And last question, what advice do you have for young filmmakers?
Sol: The most simple and striking advice that I received myself at some point, though at first I nearly missed it, was from Katriel Schory who ran the film fund in Israel for a long time.
Sydney knows him well I’m sure.
He gave this one inspirational speech at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2006, when I was a film student. He said the most important thing for a producer is you always have to be nice, open and friendly. And I was like, well yeah… But the way that he explained it got to me. He said that everybody who’s in a certain position of power has a free choice who he wants to work with.
And these people are always going to choose to work with the people who are nice, open and friendly and if you are that person and if you are nice, open and friendly all the time, then you’re just more likely to climb the steps of your career. And at the same time you will make this industry a better place to work in.
I found it very compelling and striking and I’ve realized that that really is what brings you forward. And so I always tried to be that person. I haven’t thought about it in a long time, so I wonder if maybe I’ve lost it a little bit on the way. Producing Holy Spider was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and has surely made me very cynical at times, but that is definitely a good piece of advice for young filmmaker, I think.
Holy Spider, 115 minutes
Germany, Denmark, France, Sweden
Directed by: Ali Abbasi
Screenplay: Ali Abbasi, Afshin Kamran Bahrami
Cast: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Mehdi Bajestani, Arash Ashtiani, Forouzan Jamshidnejad, Nima Akbarpour, Sara Fazilat, Sina Parvaneh, Alice Rahimi, Mesbah Taleb
Cinematography by: Nadim Carlsen
Film Editing: Olivia Neergaard-Holm
Production Designer: Lina Nordqvist
Costumes Cesigner: Hanadi Khurma
Music: Martin Dirkov
Produced by: Sol Bondy, Jacob Jarek
Co-producers: Fred Burle, Eva Åkergren, Vincent Maraval, Calle Marthin, Peter Possne, Olivier Père, Rémi Burah
Production Cos: Profile Pictures, One Two Films, Why Not Productions, Nordisk Film Production Ab
Backing: Danish Film Institute, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Moin Filmförderung, Dfff, Ffa, Nordisk Film + TV Fund, Swedish Film Institute, Eurimages, Film I Väst, Zdf, Arte, Arte France Cinéma
Isa Wild Bunch has thus far sold Holy Spider to Utopia for U.S., Cinéart for Benelux, A-One Films Baltic for Baltics, Academy 2 ror Italy, Alamode Filmsfor Germany, BTeam Pictures for Spain, Bir Film for Turkey, Camera Film for Denmark, Canibal for Mexico, Cinobo for Greece, Edko Films for Hong Kong, Falcon Pictures for Indonesia, Film Europe for Czechia and Slovakia, Fivia/Cenex for Yugoslavia, Gaga for Japan, Gutek Film for Poland, Independenta Film for Romania, Karma for Spain, Metropolitan Filmexportfor France, Mubi for UK Ireland, Malaysia, India; Nordisk and Mer for Norway, Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais for Portugal, Pancinema for South Korea, United King Films for Israel, Vertigo for Hungary, Xenix for Switzerland, Front Row for Mena.
- 12/18/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
When the 2020 Oscar for original screenplay went to South Korea’s “Parasite” scribes, some were surprised, but they should not have been; the Academy has long been open to foreign-language contenders in all categories. As early as 1947, when the writing categories were a bit different, the Italian screenwriters Sergio Amidei and Federico Fellini nabbed a nomination for “Open City,” as did French scribe Jacques Prévert for “Children of Paradise.”
While during the 1940s and 1950s, barely a handful of foreign-language films reached the nomination stage for writing awards, by the 1960s, every year saw at least one non-English-speaking nominee, and some years, a whopping three. 1962 marked the first Oscar win for international scribes, with Ennio de Concini, Alfredo Gianetti and Pietro Germi claiming it for “Divorce Italian Style.” And in 1966, French screenwriters Claude Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven nabbed a statuette for “A Man and a Woman.”
Although foreign-language writers continued...
While during the 1940s and 1950s, barely a handful of foreign-language films reached the nomination stage for writing awards, by the 1960s, every year saw at least one non-English-speaking nominee, and some years, a whopping three. 1962 marked the first Oscar win for international scribes, with Ennio de Concini, Alfredo Gianetti and Pietro Germi claiming it for “Divorce Italian Style.” And in 1966, French screenwriters Claude Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven nabbed a statuette for “A Man and a Woman.”
Although foreign-language writers continued...
- 12/16/2022
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
The concept of the body double is quite spread throughout the movie industry, with people looking like the stars doubling them in stunts or in erotic scenes. In India and Bollywood, though, where a number of stars are bigger than life, it has risen to a whole other level, with film star lookalikes being as much part of Indian popular culture as the revered actors who front the movie industry, even starring as so-called “duplicates” in broadly comedic versions of original films by the megastars they resemble. Documentary director and producer Geetika Narang Abbasi profiles three career duplicates – Kishore Bhanushali, who doubles as Dev Anand; Firoz Khan the Amitabh Bachchan lookalike and Prashant Walde, who makes a living mimicking Shah Rukh Khan.
A.K.A. at Red Sea International Film Festival
The three portraits she presents are quite thorough, as she managed to earn their trust to the point of...
A.K.A. at Red Sea International Film Festival
The three portraits she presents are quite thorough, as she managed to earn their trust to the point of...
- 12/15/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Click here to read the full article.
For the first time in Oscar history, three Persian-language films are up for the Academy Award for best international feature. Alongside Iran’s official entry, Houman Seyyedi’s darkly comic World War III, Denmark has submitted serial killer drama Holy Spider from Iran-born, Copenhagen-based Ali Abbasi. Britain’s hopes, meanwhile, lie with Winners, a tragicomic tale about (of all things) a missing Oscar statue, from director Hassan Nazer, another Iranian expat, who lives in Scotland.
Taken together, the trio of movies represents the breadth of Iranian cinema, within the country and among the filmmaking diaspora.
Winners is Nazer’s love letter to his country’s filmmakers. Dedicated to Iranian directors Abbas Kiarostami, Asghar Farhadi, Majid Majidi and Jafar Panahi, it is jam-packed with references to and quotes from other Farsi films, among them Panahi’s Taxi and Majidi’s Children of Heaven and...
For the first time in Oscar history, three Persian-language films are up for the Academy Award for best international feature. Alongside Iran’s official entry, Houman Seyyedi’s darkly comic World War III, Denmark has submitted serial killer drama Holy Spider from Iran-born, Copenhagen-based Ali Abbasi. Britain’s hopes, meanwhile, lie with Winners, a tragicomic tale about (of all things) a missing Oscar statue, from director Hassan Nazer, another Iranian expat, who lives in Scotland.
Taken together, the trio of movies represents the breadth of Iranian cinema, within the country and among the filmmaking diaspora.
Winners is Nazer’s love letter to his country’s filmmakers. Dedicated to Iranian directors Abbas Kiarostami, Asghar Farhadi, Majid Majidi and Jafar Panahi, it is jam-packed with references to and quotes from other Farsi films, among them Panahi’s Taxi and Majidi’s Children of Heaven and...
- 12/13/2022
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
The five best film nominees for this year’s European Film Awards give a feel for the breadth and diversity of the 2022 lineup, one of the most impressive ever for the event. To illustrate: An intimate drama of two pre-pubescent boys turns deeply tragic in Lukas Dhont’s Close; Ali Abbasi’s Iran-set crime thriller Holy Spider centers on a serial killer and the female journalist trying to catch him; Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage is a period portrait of an Austrian empress struggling for emancipation and against ideals of femininity; the Catalan-set Alcarràs from Carla Simón spotlights a family of peach farmers on their final summer harvest; and Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness rollicks as a capitalist satire with a set piece of impressive projectile vomiting. Alongside Dhont, Kreutzer, Abbasi and Östlund, best director nominees include the venerable 84-year-old Polish auteur Jerzy Skolimowski...
The five best film nominees for this year’s European Film Awards give a feel for the breadth and diversity of the 2022 lineup, one of the most impressive ever for the event. To illustrate: An intimate drama of two pre-pubescent boys turns deeply tragic in Lukas Dhont’s Close; Ali Abbasi’s Iran-set crime thriller Holy Spider centers on a serial killer and the female journalist trying to catch him; Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage is a period portrait of an Austrian empress struggling for emancipation and against ideals of femininity; the Catalan-set Alcarràs from Carla Simón spotlights a family of peach farmers on their final summer harvest; and Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness rollicks as a capitalist satire with a set piece of impressive projectile vomiting. Alongside Dhont, Kreutzer, Abbasi and Östlund, best director nominees include the venerable 84-year-old Polish auteur Jerzy Skolimowski...
- 12/9/2022
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IFFKThe filmmaker and women’s rights activist, who has been jailed many times and banned from travelling abroad, is the winner of the Spirit of Cinema award at the International Film Festival of Kerala.CrisIn a letter that was sent to the Cannes Film Festival, where a movie she acted in was premiering, Iranian filmmaker and women’s rights activist Mahnaz Mohammadi wrote, “I am a woman and a filmmaker, two reasons sufficient to be treated like a criminal in this country.” The letter was read aloud because she could not make it there, owing to a travel ban imposed on her for her film work. This December, she was supposed to come to Thiruvananthapuram for the International Film Festival of Kerala (Iffk), but she could not, again because of the travel ban. As a symbolic gesture, however, she sent a lock of her hair to the Iffk through Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Sangari.
- 12/9/2022
- by Cris
- The News Minute
Geetika Narang Abbasi is an independent filmmaker based out of India. With over 15 years of experience, she has directed, produced and edited media content across various formats. Her films have been showcased and awarded at film festivals across the globe. Climate change, society and culture have been some of the recurrent themes in her works.
Yasir Abbasi is a postgraduate in mass communication from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, and has been working as an independent cinematographer since 2002. His work, which spans across different forms, has been shown and awarded at film festivals worldwide. He’s also the author of the bestselling book Yeh Un Dinoñ Ki Baat Hai: Urdu Memoirs of Cinema Legends
On the occassion of “A.K.A.” screening at Red Sea International Film Festival, we speak with them about the reasons of shooting a film about lookalikes, the difficulties the production posed, the characters of these people,...
Yasir Abbasi is a postgraduate in mass communication from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, and has been working as an independent cinematographer since 2002. His work, which spans across different forms, has been shown and awarded at film festivals worldwide. He’s also the author of the bestselling book Yeh Un Dinoñ Ki Baat Hai: Urdu Memoirs of Cinema Legends
On the occassion of “A.K.A.” screening at Red Sea International Film Festival, we speak with them about the reasons of shooting a film about lookalikes, the difficulties the production posed, the characters of these people,...
- 12/7/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
This interview with “Holy Spider” director Ali Abbasi originally appeared in the International Film issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Ali Abbasi would like to make something clear: “Holy Spider” is not a true-crime film. Though the story is based on the horrifying real case of Saeed Hanaei, who murdered 16 sex workers in the Iranian city of Mashhad in 2000-2001, claiming he was doing God’s work to eradicate sinful women, Abbasi was not interested in making a serial killer movie. He wanted to make a noir that explored a “serial killer society” in which a devoutly religious man living in one of the holiest cities in Iran could admit to atrocious crimes and be hailed by a sizable portion of the population as a hero. When we spoke to Abbasid, who was born in Iran but now lives in Denmark, the protests for women’s rights that exploded in...
Ali Abbasi would like to make something clear: “Holy Spider” is not a true-crime film. Though the story is based on the horrifying real case of Saeed Hanaei, who murdered 16 sex workers in the Iranian city of Mashhad in 2000-2001, claiming he was doing God’s work to eradicate sinful women, Abbasi was not interested in making a serial killer movie. He wanted to make a noir that explored a “serial killer society” in which a devoutly religious man living in one of the holiest cities in Iran could admit to atrocious crimes and be hailed by a sizable portion of the population as a hero. When we spoke to Abbasid, who was born in Iran but now lives in Denmark, the protests for women’s rights that exploded in...
- 12/5/2022
- by Missy Schwartz
- The Wrap
“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
The first calendar year to see the physical return of almost every major film festival since the pandemic, 2022 has been a huge morale booster for filmmakers from all around the globe. And now, with the third edition of Deadline’s Contenders Film: International kicking off Saturday at 8 a.m. Pt, that outreach expands even further: leaving a carbon-free footprint, our online event will showcase the myriad films that soared at Sundance, beguiled Berlin, captivated Cannes, thrilled Telluride, vitalized Venice and touched Toronto, all the while shining a spotlight on the must-see movies that might have flown under your radar.
Click her to register for and watch today’s Contenders livestream.
Since submissions accepted for the Best International Feature Film Oscar category continue to grow — up by something like 30 from just 10 years ago, buoyed no doubt by the boundary-breaking success of 2019’s Parasite — it is harder than ever before to see...
Click her to register for and watch today’s Contenders livestream.
Since submissions accepted for the Best International Feature Film Oscar category continue to grow — up by something like 30 from just 10 years ago, buoyed no doubt by the boundary-breaking success of 2019’s Parasite — it is harder than ever before to see...
- 12/3/2022
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Dda Spotlight awards for Sarah Polley, Ali Abbasi.
Finisterra, a series about the Nazi presence in Portugal during World War II, has won the ‘most promising project’ prize at the TV Beats co-financing market at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
The series receives a €3,000 prize, and was selected by a jury consisting of Morgane Bruna from Wild Bunch TV, Richard Pommerat from N9ne Studio and Joachim Friedman from the Internationale Filmschule Koln.
The jury noted a “visually strong and artistically challenging series” that “tells a universal, yet poetic story about the oppression of women, the abuse of power, and...
Finisterra, a series about the Nazi presence in Portugal during World War II, has won the ‘most promising project’ prize at the TV Beats co-financing market at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
The series receives a €3,000 prize, and was selected by a jury consisting of Morgane Bruna from Wild Bunch TV, Richard Pommerat from N9ne Studio and Joachim Friedman from the Internationale Filmschule Koln.
The jury noted a “visually strong and artistically challenging series” that “tells a universal, yet poetic story about the oppression of women, the abuse of power, and...
- 11/23/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Luca Guadagnino’s Timothée Chalamet-starring, edgy cannibal road trip romance Bones And All pulled in young demos (79 in the 18-34 rage) and women (54-46 female) for an opening weekend gross of 120k, or 23.9k per screen average in five theaters. That’s respectable and in line with distributor Uar expectations although below recent debuts including Banshees of Inisherin and Tár last month and The Fabelmans last week, where PSAs all cracked 40k.
“I’m hoping over the Thanksgiving period, the audience has an appetite for it,” said Uar president Erik Lomis as Bones And All is set to expands nationwide Wednesday.
The film premiered in Venice, winning Guadagnino the Silver Lion for best director and Taylor Russell the Marcello Mastroianni Award for emerging performer.
Opening per screen averages aren’t apples to apples or necessarily predictors of a film’s appeal or commercial or critical success. They can show...
“I’m hoping over the Thanksgiving period, the audience has an appetite for it,” said Uar president Erik Lomis as Bones And All is set to expands nationwide Wednesday.
The film premiered in Venice, winning Guadagnino the Silver Lion for best director and Taylor Russell the Marcello Mastroianni Award for emerging performer.
Opening per screen averages aren’t apples to apples or necessarily predictors of a film’s appeal or commercial or critical success. They can show...
- 11/20/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider wasn’t meant to be prophetic.
The director’s serial-killer drama from Utopia is inspired by the true story of Saeed Hanaei, who murdered prostitutes in the Iranian city Mashhad, claiming he was acting on behalf of God to “cleanse” the holy center of their corruption. Zar Amir-Ebrahimi stars as Rahimi, a fictional journalist who investigates the murders and comes to realize that the authorities have little interest in catching the suspect.
At its premiere at Cannes, Holy Spider shocked and amazed in equal measure with its unflinching depiction of the violent misogyny Abbasi sees at the heart of modern Iran. It was already part of the awards conversation when Denmark — Abbasi is an Iranian exile based in Copenhagen — put the film forward as its official entry for the 2023 Oscars.
Then, on Sept. 16, the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in custody.
Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider wasn’t meant to be prophetic.
The director’s serial-killer drama from Utopia is inspired by the true story of Saeed Hanaei, who murdered prostitutes in the Iranian city Mashhad, claiming he was acting on behalf of God to “cleanse” the holy center of their corruption. Zar Amir-Ebrahimi stars as Rahimi, a fictional journalist who investigates the murders and comes to realize that the authorities have little interest in catching the suspect.
At its premiere at Cannes, Holy Spider shocked and amazed in equal measure with its unflinching depiction of the violent misogyny Abbasi sees at the heart of modern Iran. It was already part of the awards conversation when Denmark — Abbasi is an Iranian exile based in Copenhagen — put the film forward as its official entry for the 2023 Oscars.
Then, on Sept. 16, the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in custody.
- 11/16/2022
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“This is a multi-layered, complex story,” explains writer and director Ali Abbasi while discussing his film “Holy Spider,” Denmark’s entry for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards. “On the superficial level you’re dealing with someone who killed 16 people in a year. The scope of it alone is remarkable and scary, and in a strange way also fascinating. Then there is the whole sociopolitical aspect around it. This being set in Iran in the very religious city of Mashhad. This religious conservatism meets suppressed sexuality. In this holy city, there is widespread prostitution.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“Holy Spider” is inspired by the true story of Saeed Hanaei (played by Mehdi Bajestani), a serial killer who targets sex workers in Iran. Zar Amir Ebrahimi plays Rahimi, a female journalist facing a misogynistic society as she tries to hunt him down. Ebrahimi won Best Actress at...
“Holy Spider” is inspired by the true story of Saeed Hanaei (played by Mehdi Bajestani), a serial killer who targets sex workers in Iran. Zar Amir Ebrahimi plays Rahimi, a female journalist facing a misogynistic society as she tries to hunt him down. Ebrahimi won Best Actress at...
- 11/9/2022
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
“Triangle of Sadness,” directed by Ruben Östlund, and “Holy Spider,” directed by Ali Abbasi, lead the European Film Awards nominations in major categories, alongside “Close,” directed by Lukas Dhont.
“Triangle of Sadness,” “Holy Spider,” “Alcarràs,” “Close” and “Corsage” vie for best European film.
Those contesting for best director are Dhont for “Close,” Marie Kreutzer for “Corsage,” Jerzy Skolimowski for “Eo,” Abbasi for “Holy Spider,” Alice Diop for “Saint Omer” and Östlund for “Triangle of Sadness.”
Nominated for European Screenwriter are “Alcarràs” scribes Carla Simón and Arnau Vilaró, Kenneth Branagh for “Belfast,” Dhont and Angelo Tijssens for “Close,” Abbasi and Afshin Kamran Bahrami for “Holy Spider,” and Östlund for “Triangle of Sadness.”
European Actress nominees are Vicky Krieps in “Corsage,” Zar Amir Ebrahimi in “Holy Spider,” Léa Seydoux in “One Fine Morning,” Penélope Cruz for “Parallel Mothers” and Meltem Kaptan in “Rabiye Kurnaz Vs.
“Triangle of Sadness,” “Holy Spider,” “Alcarràs,” “Close” and “Corsage” vie for best European film.
Those contesting for best director are Dhont for “Close,” Marie Kreutzer for “Corsage,” Jerzy Skolimowski for “Eo,” Abbasi for “Holy Spider,” Alice Diop for “Saint Omer” and Östlund for “Triangle of Sadness.”
Nominated for European Screenwriter are “Alcarràs” scribes Carla Simón and Arnau Vilaró, Kenneth Branagh for “Belfast,” Dhont and Angelo Tijssens for “Close,” Abbasi and Afshin Kamran Bahrami for “Holy Spider,” and Östlund for “Triangle of Sadness.”
European Actress nominees are Vicky Krieps in “Corsage,” Zar Amir Ebrahimi in “Holy Spider,” Léa Seydoux in “One Fine Morning,” Penélope Cruz for “Parallel Mothers” and Meltem Kaptan in “Rabiye Kurnaz Vs.
- 11/8/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety 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
On Saturday during the BFI London Film Festival, Deadline hosted an industry party at The Twenty Two.
The Deadline Studio captured stars, creatives and executives from several films in the festival lineup including Ali Abbasi, Zar Amir Ebrahimi from Abbasi’s Holy Spider, the Utopia film and Denmark’s submission into this year’s Oscar race; Lukas Dhont the writer-director of Close, the Belgian Oscar entry; Mike Jackman, Scott Franklin, Elijah Rodriguez and Alex Jackman from Netflix’s The Good Nurse; and Volker Bertelmann, Ed Berger and James Field from another Netflix pic, All Quiet on the Western Front.
Also in attendance was Amsterdam composer Daniel Pemberton, Navalny producer Odessa Rae, director Gurinder Chadha, Marv CEO Zygi Kamasa, Endeavor Content SVP Film Negeen Yazdi, Beta Cinema’s EVP Acquisitions, Sales & Marketing, Thorsten Ritter, and Head Of Sales and Acquisitions Tassilo Hallbauer, casting director Lara Manwaring, Aitken Alexander Associates agent Emma Paterson,...
The Deadline Studio captured stars, creatives and executives from several films in the festival lineup including Ali Abbasi, Zar Amir Ebrahimi from Abbasi’s Holy Spider, the Utopia film and Denmark’s submission into this year’s Oscar race; Lukas Dhont the writer-director of Close, the Belgian Oscar entry; Mike Jackman, Scott Franklin, Elijah Rodriguez and Alex Jackman from Netflix’s The Good Nurse; and Volker Bertelmann, Ed Berger and James Field from another Netflix pic, All Quiet on the Western Front.
Also in attendance was Amsterdam composer Daniel Pemberton, Navalny producer Odessa Rae, director Gurinder Chadha, Marv CEO Zygi Kamasa, Endeavor Content SVP Film Negeen Yazdi, Beta Cinema’s EVP Acquisitions, Sales & Marketing, Thorsten Ritter, and Head Of Sales and Acquisitions Tassilo Hallbauer, casting director Lara Manwaring, Aitken Alexander Associates agent Emma Paterson,...
- 10/10/2022
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline Film + TV
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