Holy Spider ★★★★

DRAMAS don’t come much tougher than the Persian-language Holy Spider, both on and off screen.

The film has been lauded by critics but condemned by the Iranian Government and lead actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi is still receiving death threats.

It’s not that co-writer and director Ali Abbasi created a work of fiction – the film is based on actual events – but he has fallen foul of the regime for simply holding a mirror up to the society in which he lives and works.

Saeed Hanaei was a serial killer who killed 16 women from 2000 to 2001 in Mashhad, Iran. Because the women were prostitutes Hanaei’s crimes were considered in a lesser light by some members of the strictly religious society.

Abbasi’s powerful film depicts both the killer’s rationale and those of his tacit supporters and then doubles down by creating a fictional female journalist investigating the murders when elements of the authorities are turning a blind eye.

It is terrifically shot, constantly challenging in both story and visuals and anchored by two great performances from Ebrahimi and Mehdi Bajestani as the complex Hanaei.

Holy Spider competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where Ebrahimi won the Best Actress Award, and was chosen as Denmark’s entry for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards.

Shocking, profound and brave, it’s one of the best films released in Australia during 2023.