Holy Spider
Reviews
CinemaSerf
Over a relatively short period of time, over a dozen dead women are found bundled by the roadside - and the police are baffled? The women have not been sexually assaulted, but strangled using a knot tied in their headscarves. Not convinced that everything is being done by the authorities, investigative journalist "Rahimi" (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi) decides to get to the truth. Meantime, we follow the life of taxi driver "Saeed" (Mehdi Bajestani) and his daily life helps us to realise that the deceased were prostitutes. Not that he uses them, but pretty soon we realise that the stories are connected. At this point the plot rather falls away - we get to the bottom of the murder-mystery a little too simplistically for my liking; but actually as that plot develops we realise that the whodunit element of the narrative is not the most important one. It rapidly becomes an evaluation of a judicial process - and of vocal popular opinion - that may just indicate that these killings are in someway justifiable. These women, were - after all, sinful and irredeemable. Can the killer capitalise on this zealousness and escape justice? It's quite an intriguing film that looks at how religious faith can butt - head to head - with civic justice; of how the ordinarily law-abiding public themselves can; of how a person can genuinely believe he is doing good by removing "stains" from his community... I cannot believe anyone from the West would watch this with anything other than a feeling of abhorrence at the offences, but this film does attempt to put both sides in a thought-provoking fashion. Though it didn't change my opinion, it did offer a balance that makes the last twenty minutes or so a lot less fait accompli than we might expect. Bajestani is good here and this is more than just a good vs. evil crime drama. Well worth a watch. Telly will be fine, though.
Louisa Moore - Screen Zealots
**By: Louisa Moore / www.ScreenZealots.com** “Holy Spider” is a disturbing crime thriller that’s based on the true story of the “Spider Killer” Saeed Hanaei, a man who murdered 16 female sex workers in Iran in the early 2000s. It’s a chilling tale of the intersection of religion, culture, social status, and sexism, and despite director Ali Abbasi sometimes crossing the line into more sordid territory, it’s a genuinely alarming film with a distressing universal message about the value of women. Female journalist Rahimi (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi) travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer who is targeting local prostitutes. With skill and determination, every day brings her one step closer to exposing the perpetrator. When it’s discovered that the murderer is a charismatic family man named Saeed (Mehdi Bajestani), it seems like a cut-and-dried, slam dunk of a case, especially when he admits to his crimes. But when the killer brags that he is holy man who is on a divine mission from God to clean up the streets by ridding the city of corrupt, “dirty women,” he’s embraced by many as a hero. Shockingly, Saeed isn’t seen as guilty, making justice even harder to come by. Amir-Ebrahimi’s lead performance is wholly engrossing, and she portrays Rahimi with a forceful grace and intellect. She’s terrific as a journalist who is seeking justice yet trapped in an intense game of cat-and-mouse with a deranged serial killer who uses religion as an excuse to carry out over a dozen horrifying murders of women. Amir-Ebrahimi displays a composure that masks an underlying rage, and her strong performance carries the film. While the story is based on real events, co-writers Abbasi and Afshin Kamran Bahrami have crafted a work of fiction for the sake of entertainment. This is imagined storytelling and not the actual truth, even though parts of this story really happened. It’s alarming and unsettling, especially when the film recreates the murders in shocking fashion, and even more so when Rahimi is faced with the stark realities of deeply-rooted traditions of misogyny that are rampant in Iranian society (and quite frankly, around the globe). “Holy Spider” is an aggressive, unflinching film that will anger and enrage. By telling the story from a female’s point of view, it feels all the more disturbing and timely.
Movie Recommendation
Manticore2022-12-09Julián is a successful video-game designer whose life is plagued by a dark secret. But when Diana pops up in his life, the man will feel as though a chance at happiness is within his grasp.More...
Ahed's Knee2021-08-05An Israeli filmmaker throws himself in the midst of two battles doomed to fail: one against the death of freedom in his country, the other against the death of his mother.More...
The Pawnbroker1965-04-20A Jewish pawnbroker, a victim of Nazi persecution, loses all faith in his fellow man until he realizes too late the tragedy of his actions.More...
Lucio Flavio1977-02-01The story of a famous Brazilian bandit in the early 1970s and his fight against a paramilitary organization known as the Death Squad.More...
War Sailor2022-09-23War Sailor is a magnificent drama that tells the story of the more than 30,000 Norwegian war sailors and their families' fate during and after the Second World War.More...
Kolamavu Kokila2018-08-17A young woman takes up drug peddling to make money for the treatment of her mom, who has cancer.More...
WarriorsNo data for this movieThere is no descriptionMore...
Woman2021-11-05A woman going through a difficult time, turns to her unusual best friend for help.More...
Helen2008-06-19An 18 year old girl called Joy has gone missing. Another girl called Helen is a few weeks away from leaving her care home. Helen is asked to 'play' Joy in a police reconstruction that will retrace Joy's last known movements. Joy had everything. A loving family, a boyfriend, a bright future. Helen, parent-less, has lived in institutions all her life and has never been close to anyone. Gradually Helen begins to immerse herself into the role, visiting the people and places that Joy knew; quietly and carefully insinuating her way into the lost girl's life. But is Helen trying to find out what happened to Joy that day, or is she searching for her own identity?More...
Critical Zone2024-08-01Amir leads a lonely life. With his dog for sole company, he drives through the underworld of Tehran, dealing drugs of all kinds and healing troubled souls like a modern prophet. He navigates the city streets aimlessly, following the directions of his GPS while getting high to escape a town with no future. And yet, in his wandering he will find the seed of resistance.More...
Sea of Time2022-09-21Two former lovers find themselves struggling for shared closure as one of them prepares to stage a play about the unspeakable tragedy that tore them apart decades ago.More...
This Is Me…Now2024-02-15An intimate, fantastical and narrative-driven reflection of Jennifer Lopez's journey of self-healing and self-love in an immersive world where music and visuals intertwine, revealing the challenges faced and the triumphs achieved.More...
The Corrupted2019-05-10Set ahead of the 2012 London Olympics, the film follows Liam, an ex-con trying to win back the love and trust of his family. He has lost everything at the hands of a local crime syndicate run by Clifford Cullen, who has high-level connections in politics, finance and the police force. Liam's drive for redemption sees him caught up in a web of conspiracy, crime, and corruption.More...
Zombi Child2019-06-12Haiti, 1962: A man is brought back from the dead only to be sent to the living hell of the sugarcane fields. In Paris, 55 years later, at the prestigious Légion d’honneur boarding school, a Haitian girl confesses an old family secret to a group of new friends - never imagining that this strange tale will convince a heartbroken classmate to do the unthinkable.More...
Wind2019-12-13Set in a world of magical realism, "Wind" sees a grandmother and her grandson trapped down an endless chasm, scavenging debris that surrounds them to realize their dream of escaping to a better life.More...
My Life in Pink1997-05-28Ludovic is waiting for a miracle. With six-year-old certainty, she believes she was meant to be a little girl -- and that the mistake will soon be corrected. But where she expects the miraculous, Ludo finds only rejection, isolation and guilt -- as the intense reactions of family, friends, and neighbors strip away every innocent lace and bauble. As suburban prejudices close around them, family loves and loyalties are tested in the ever-escalating dramatic turns of Alain Berliner's critically acclaimed first feature. Winner of the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and a favorite at festivals around the world, this unique film experience delivers magic of the rarest sort through a story of difference, rejection, and childlike faith in miracles.More...
Crossing2024-03-22Lia, a retired teacher from Georgia, learns from her young neighbor, Achi, that her long-lost transgender niece, Tekla, has crossed the border into Turkey. In search of Tekla, Lia travels to Istanbul with the unpredictable Achi, where they explore the hidden depths of the city.More...
Mars One2022-08-25A middle-class Black family in Brazil copes with the election of a far-right extremist president. The mother believes that she's cursed after an unexpected encounter, while her husband puts all of his hopes into their son's soccer career.More...
Page Eight2011-08-28Johnny is a long-serving MI5 officer. His boss dies suddenly, leaving behind an inexplicable file which threatens the stability of the organisation.More...
Sound of My Voice2011-01-22A journalist and his girlfriend get pulled in while they investigate a cult whose leader claims to be from the future.More...
Similar Movies
A.I. Artificial Intel...
2001-06-29David, a robotic boy—the first of his kind programmed to love—is adopted as a test case by a Cybertronics employee and his wife. Though he gradually becomes their child, a series of unexpected circumstances make this life impossible for David.Belle de Jour
1967-05-24Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.Ben-Hur
1959-11-18In 25 AD, Judah Ben-Hur, a Jew in ancient Judea, opposes the occupying Roman empire. Falsely accused by a Roman childhood friend-turned-overlord of trying to kill the Roman governor, he is put into slavery and his mother and sister are taken away as prisoners.Contact
1997-07-11A radio astronomer receives the first extraterrestrial radio signal ever picked up on Earth. As the world powers scramble to decipher the message and decide upon a course of action, she must make some difficult decisions between her beliefs, the truth, and reality.Manhattan
1979-04-25Manhattan explores how the life of a middle-aged television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.The Last Emperor
1987-10-04A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.Faces
1968-11-24Middle-aged suburban husband Richard abruptly tells his wife, Maria, that he wants a divorce. As Richard takes up with a younger woman, Maria enjoys a night on the town with her friends and meets a younger man. As the couple and those around them confront a seemingly futile search for what they've lost -- love, excitement, passion -- this classic American independent film explores themes of aging and alienation.GoodFellas
1990-09-12The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.Priest of Evil
2010-10-29Detective sergeant Timo Harjunpää of the Helsinki Violent Crime Unit loses his daughter in a tragic way. Despite the support of his closest colleague, Constable Onerva Nykänen, Harjunpää is unable to recover from the loss of his family. He seeks revenge against his daughter's killer, while in his work he investigates strange deaths in the Helsinki metro that turn out to be the work of a serial killer.Citizen Kane
1941-04-17Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.Louder Than Words
2013-10-11After the unexpected death of their daughter, a couple work to build a state of the art children's hospital where families are welcomed into the healing process.My Best Friend Anne F...
2021-10-07Based on the real-life friendship between Anne Frank and Hannah Goslar, from Nazi-occupied Amsterdam to their harrowing reunion in a concentration camp.303 Squadron
2018-08-31After the fall of the September Campaign of 1939, two Polish pilots are forced to fight for their nation in foreign battlefronts.The Poseidon Adventur...
1972-12-01When their ocean liner capsizes, a group of passengers struggle to survive and escape.Apollo 13
1995-06-30The true story of technical troubles that scuttle the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970, risking the lives of astronaut Jim Lovell and his crew, with the failed journey turning into a thrilling saga of heroism. Drifting more than 200,000 miles from Earth, the astronauts work furiously with the ground crew to avert tragedy.Frenzy
1972-05-25London is terrorized by a vicious sex killer known as The Necktie Murderer. Following the brutal slaying of his ex-wife, down-on-his-luck Richard Blaney is suspected by the police of being the killer. He goes on the run, determined to prove his innocence.The Experiment
2001-03-0820 volunteers agree to take part in a seemingly well-paid experiment advertised by the university. It is supposed to be about aggressive behavior in an artificial prison situation. A journalist senses a story behind the ad and smuggles himself in among the test subjects. They are randomly divided into prisoners and guards. What seems like a game at the beginning soon turns into bloody seriousness.Titanic
1997-11-18101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic's departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.Full Metal Jacket
1987-06-26A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.The Ninth Gate
1999-08-25A rare book dealer finds himself at the heart of a string of paranormal events when he is hired to find the last two copies of a text, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, capable of summoning the Devil.