Holy Spider – Ali Abassi – Iran

Based off true events surrounding Saeed Hanaei, a serial killer who murdered 16 prostitutes in Mashhad, Iran between 2000-2001, Holy Spider is a frightening and fresh take on the serial killer procedural drama.

Iranian born and Denmark based filmmaker Ali Abassi follows up his insanely original Swedish fantasy film Border with another darkly funny and brutally realistic film that breaks from the formula and structure of a crime thriller in fun and inventive ways. Split between two POVs, we follow Rahimi (Cannes best actress winning Zar Amir Ebrahimi) a female journalist who arrives to Mashhad to write an investigative article on The Spider Killer. Meanwhile, we also meet Saeed (Mehdi Bajestani) who is instantly revealed to be the killer as we witness him haphazardly strangle a prostitute in his apartment stairwell and dispose of her body, rolled up in a carpet, on the side of the road.

Abassi wastes no time introducing us to the killer and eliminating any distracting “mystery” from the proceedings, as it becomes evident that his focus is not on the murders or the investigation, but rather the cultural implications of the killer’s mission and the fallout of his eventual arrest. Saeed is a husband, father of three and a construction worker. He sets out at night on his motorcycle every week when his wife goes to visit her parents. Picking up a lone woman, he brings her back to his home and strangles them with their own headscarf. He calls the media and lets them know where to find the body. Nobody at the paper even bothers to record most of these calls. The police don’t seem to be in a hurry to stop him, as they see his work as a favour.

Rahimi, frustrated with the lack of effort from the police and media, takes matters into her own hands and attempts to take down the Spider Killer herself. What follows subverts expectations and shifts the tone and message of the film into a scathing commentary on the treatment of women in Iran. Following his arrest, Saeed confesses fully to his crimes, which he sees as an aid to society, justified by the tenets of Islam. His message reaches the ears of Iran’s most devout and is met with praise by the populace who view his work as a welcome cleansing.

Holy Spider is a difficult film to pin down or define. It plays with expectations and structure, it is so full of dark and funny tonal shifts and remains engaging throughout without having to lean on the traditional tent poles of the genre. By the end, the message is clear and harrowing. The screening I saw at Vancouver Playhouse was very well attended and as the credits rolled and the applause picked up, the audience erupted into chants of “Woman, Life, Liberty” in Persian. In the pitch black darkness, the women of the audience shouted together in protest and support, which only underlined the importance of a film like Holy Spider.