Every person shall meet what they wish to avoid. - Ancient Persian proverb

On the surface Saeed is a devout Shia Muslim and devoted family man, but when night falls he gets on a motorcycle, looks for sex workers, murders them, and dumps their bodies in fields. A one-man jihad against vice and immorality. In the ensuing media frenzy a lone female journalist from Tehran, Rahimi, vows to track the killer down, alone.

Holy Spider is based on real events in Mashhad, Iran, where in the space of a year 16 sex workers were murdered. The film is realistic in another way in that it uncovers the age-old misogyny that runs rampant in Iran. Protests are currently raking the nation after a woman was arrested by the "morality" police for failing to wear her headscarf properly and ended up dead in a prison cell. Many Iranians, including relatives of the victims, believe the women who died are worthless and deserving of their fates because they were "immoral." Rahimi fights this extreme prejudice as well as a mass murderer.

Holy Spider combines everything I love about film; glimpses of the underground, a distant and diverse land, an underdog protagonist, well written dialogue, stylish photography and costumes, a fantastic and unconventional story based on a graphic novel, and chilling, hypnotic music. The language of Holy Spider is Persian and it was shot in Jordan. Director Ali Abbasi is Iran born and Denmark based. Sar Amir Ebrahimi (Rahimi) won the best actress award this year at Cannes for her performance. Both were present at the Toronto International Film Festival screening I attended. Apparently Ebrahimi wasn't Abbasi's first choice for the role. He thought she was too nice to be Rahimi, but then she got so angry with him, and was so convincing in her anger that he gave her the role. Everything worked out well in the end.

I watched this film yesterday on the Golden Apricot film festival and its rating of 6.6 makes little sense to me.

It is a crafty film that takes you on a suspenseful trip with moments of well-placed humor.

The Iranian setting is somewhat overdramatized, but I believe that works for the film, rather than against it.

The important note here is that the true Spider Killer received very little to no support from the Iranian society.

The overall setting is somber, it is relatively violent, there is a lot of room given for the personal development of our characters, there is social criticism, great acting, and powerful sound design.

My only criticism is that secondary characters could have given more screen-time to act out their emotional curve, as there performances were really strong.

I strongly recommend this to anyone that loves European film and/or true crime pieces.

Easily an eight!

Inspired by true events in the Islamic Republic of Iran, this film was funded by European producers, and filmed in Jordan. I assume that due to the subject matter being highly critical of Iranian society and governmental institutions, that the republic would never have approved such a filming. Unlike many films revolving around a series of murders, Holy Spider is primarily concerned with overt criticisms of patriarchal and theocratic social structures in Iran. This messaging may be especially relevant after recent happenings in Iran regarding enforcement of the hijab.

The camera does not shy from prolonged extreme close ups of brutal details to convey the severity of the situation, and the true vulgarity of those who condone such actions. The camerawork, soundtrack and sound design come together to create a highly effective dark atmosphere. With moving wide angles of the streets at night, drone shots, a droning score and the fear-impounding motorcycle roars, Ali Abbasi has an adept conception of tone and spatial context, akin to Denis Villeneuve.

An interesting and important detail, is that the movie did not take the easy route of portraying the killer as evil incarnate. Rather, the film humanizes him at some points by showing a softer side. This shifts some attention towards the possible root cause of this issue: That a powerful ideology may perhaps inflict a seemingly ordinary person to do terrible things. It's something to think about.