Tag: Iranian Cinema

Holy Spider (2022) Review

On By troubledproductionsIn ReviewLeave a comment

Quick synopsis: A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so-called Spider Killer, who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners.

I’m really glad I got a chance to watch this (available on Mubi at the time of writing). Not just because (spoilers) it’s a very good film, but also because it means it doesn’t appear on my to-watch list any more. Every time I saw the title on the list my brain sang it to the tune of Holy Diver by Dio.

If relief at the eradication of an earworm was my main takeaway from this then that would be a bad indication of the quality of it. But whilst relief was slightly how I felt, it was only about 5% of my feelings; the dominant emotion coming out of this was pure anger. Anger, btw, is likely to be the theme of reviews this week. It wasn’t intentional, it just turned out to be a very “We have a point to make!” run of films.

The central theme of this piece is: “Local prostitutes in Iran are being murdered, a lot of people aren’t bothered by this because they see the women as immoral and deserving it”. It’s a depressingly accurate take on cultural misogyny in that country, especially since the killings did actually happen. In 2001, Saeed Hanaei went on a killing spree of prostitutes in the Iranian city of Mashhad. These weren’t quick “in the moment” killings either; he strangled them. Do you know how long it takes to strangle someone to death? Watch Promising Young Woman and find out, there’s A LOT of time to change your mind and come to your senses. And just like in the film; the real Hanaei was supported by locals; with newspapers defending him. And before you get too high and mighty about “well that’s just Arabs, western worlds don’t treat people like that”, read the comments on news articles when asylum seekers or refugees die. You will see an outpouring, not of grief, but of glee.

Hanaei is portrayed by Mehdi Bajestani, and he is so damn good in this. It would be easy to portray Hanaei as a stereotypical one-dimensional fundamentalist killer. But Bajestani (and the writing of Ali Abbasi) provide him with a lot of humanity. He’s not sympathetic or likeable in the slightest, but he is sincere, and you do understand how he got to his point of view, even if it is sociopathic and deplorable. It’s key that the character doesn’t seem to be getting pleasure from this. He seems genuinely disgusted with himself for having to be near the women he’s killing. This really helps him feel genuine. He is terrifying, even when he’s just being an everyday family man. There’s a moment where the veil slips when he has an outburst in front of his family and stops being the kind loving family man. What’s very telling is how his family react. They’re scared, but not surprised. So they know he has the capacity for violence; just maybe not to the full extent of it.

It’s not just Bajestani whose performance anchors this film. The casting of Zar Amir Ebrahimi is genius. I’m not sure if her casting was ENTIRELY just “she’s the best performer available”. I mean, she definitely is great, absolutely phenomenal. But consider this: Holy Spider is a film about how the prevalence of religion in Iran has led to extremists who commit murder and use religion as an excuse for extreme sexism. And the female lead? A woman who was banned from appearing in Iranian films after SOMEONE ELSE leaked her sex tape. So if that wasn’t part of the decision in casting her, it advertently provides a lot of backstory. People talk about political casting, but usually, they just mean “10% of the films cast aren’t straight white men. This is political correctness gone mad!”. This is political casting as an attack on the Iranian cultural misogyny which allowed Hanaei to kill so many women. Ebrahimi brings everything to this. She brings the anger and determination needed, and it would be a much lesser film without her in it.

In terms of the film itself? It’s weirdly reminiscent of It Follows in terms of the stylistic choices; especially when it comes to the music. The murders are brutal, but not in an exploitative way. The first one especially is aided by how damn scared the woman seems; really sells the fear with her eyes. Ali Abbasi did a fantastic job writing/directing this. You can tell he felt he NEEDED to make this. Every scene is full of furious passion and indignation; but also the creative talent needed to make such a hard-hitting story palatable to audiences. He recently directed two episodes of The Last Of Us, so I’m hoping his career continues upward and he gets the opportunities he deserves. Few people can inject emotion and frustration as easily as he managed it, and he’d be an asset to any studio.

Ballad Of A White Cow (2020)

On By troubledproductionsIn ReviewLeave a comment

Quick synopsis: An Iranian woman (Maryam Moqadam) learns that her husband was actually innocent of the crime he was executed for. She’s not very happy about this.

This film will infuriate you. When you find out that the man executed was actually innocent it will make you want to tear your hair out. This is a great example of why I’m anti-execution btw. I’ve had this discussion with people and I’ve offered this sentence:

“Make executions legal, but have everybody who supports it on a list. If it’s discovered that someone was executed wrongfully, or if there’s a small piece of doubt about it, someone on the list gets killed”

Usually, that’s met with “but that’s not fair, you can’t kill people who didn’t do anything”, by people who are completely missing the irony. Plus if they’re so certain that only the guilty will be executed, they’d have no problem with it because they’d know for sure they’re safe. Once you perform that act, you can’t take it back, and that’s what this film is about. No matter what happens, the mans death can never be reversed.

Not that much is happening anyway. The people who sentenced him to death tell his widow “Nothing we can do, it is gods will”. “we can’t deny people their rights. The death penalty is a human right”. “The prophet himself made a judgement”, no, he didn’t. You did. It must be nice to have that level of faith which allows you to ignore culpability. That’s how problems don’t get solved, when people don’t take responsibility for their decisions. There is one person who seems to care, Reza (played by Alirez Sanifar), who seems to realise how shitty a situation it is. He was the judge who sentenced her husband to death. It was his first death sentence and it turned out to be wrong. You can tell he is wracked with guilt over this, and is trying to do everything he can to fix it, but knowing there’s nothing he can do.

It’s harrowing to watch her so beaten down because of her gender. She gets made homeless because she has a man in her house. Landlords won’t rent to her because she’s a single woman, putting her in the same category as junkies. It’s ugly, it’s horrible, and it’s far too true.

The ugliness extends to the look. Not in an “eww this was really badly made” way, but if I had to describe it as a colour I would say “grey”. It’s a very washed out film, and that perfectly suits the tone and the story. The lead, Maryam Moqadam, co-directed this with Behtash Sanaeeha (better known for 2014’s Risk Of Acid Rain). It’s not often you get co-directed films (he says, a few weeks after watching and reviewing one), and to their credit it never feels disjointed in terms of style. The whole thing does feel like it belongs to one voice.

There is a slight warmness to the whole thing at times. Despite what it may seem, this is not a story about loss, or revenge. It’s a story of human perseverance, about the strength people find in adversity.

This strength, as well as the pain, is filtered through Moqadam’s character, Mina. She carries a heavy burden, the film rests upon her shoulders, and she carries it wonderfully. There’s a scene near the end which best demonstrates this. I’ll explain the lead-up first. She meets a stranger who claims to be a friend of her husband, the aforementioned Reza. He’s decided to ease his guilt by turning up at her house, saying he owes her husband some money, so he’ll give it to her.

Sadly, this act of kindness ends up getting her evicted (for having an unrelated male in the house), but she never mentions it to him. She hides it from him out of kindness for him. Because she doesn’t want him to feel guilty. So when she finds out who he really is, she feels doubly betrayed. She just sits in her car seething, not saying a single word, she doesn’t need to; her face says everything. It’s a masterclass in both performance and directing. That scene alone makes this worth watching, but watch the rest too as it’s well worth your time. In most other countries, this would be a film of anger and violence, in this it’s just despair. She can’t win, she’s utterly helpless, a victim of the world she lives in. It sucks, and it’s depressing, but it’s also very compelling to watch.