While audiences are constantly struck with messages, Abbasi does sustain the narrative, especially in the second act. When Rahimi begins her investigation, Saeed proudly manages to get away with his crimes. It shapes up a war between two sides in a grisly setting, turning Holy Spider into a powerful thriller.
It’s perhaps a much-needed move for Abbasi not to let this become a thesis. He successfully forgoes the sensational vibes and the dramatic tones that Hollywood murder mysteries bring. There’s no Hitchcock inspiration here. But Abbasi does intensify the plot surrounding the case while keeping the commentary intact.
Abbasi quite brilliantly plays on these tropes. Jordan stands in for Mashhad, one of Iran’s spiritual centers. The empty roads, dark alleys, and barren buildings rightfully conjure the eerie and horror the story needs. In depicting the violence and sexual assault sequences, the filmmaker erases arousal and titillation, something several violent crime sequences fail at. When Saeed picks up a woman during his “crusade,” there is an instant alarming terror reflected in the theater, sending the audience to clutch on their seats’ edges.
“Ebrahimi takes over the final act with her fantastic performance.”
The third act of Holy Spider tackles the socio-political references and Saeed’s crimes. It’s an unexpected turn for those unaware of the actual incident. Abbasi takes on the entire Iranian governance and the societal mentality with sheer transparency. Rahimi plays a central role here. She finds herself in anger and disbelief, trying to get some significant outcome from her journalistic activism. While it seems she has won the battle to some extent, the film shocks with a surprising ending that leaves viewers to ponder a more proper conclusion.
Ebrahimi takes over the final act with her fantastic performance. The fact that she fled Iran years ago makes her character’s long-running fight against oppression close to the actor’s real-life experiences. The ending and her actual exile from her home make for a crucial connection between Abbasi’s on-screen narrative and Ebrahimi’s real life.
Holy Spider competes with another administration-approved film based on the same incident, Killer Spider. The latter has waited for two years to get that approval, bringing this title under allegations of plagiarism. Abbasi, a Danish resident, made this film in a joint production with Germany, Denmark, Swedish, and France. Iran denies the film’s authenticity, but a film that has made its way through festivals across the globe, including India, reflects how the ban could be another form of oppression.
Some may not be on par with the artistic liberty which dramatizes the actual crime events. It feels necessary to truly visualize the atrocious incident. The allegories can’t be missed and are like a punch to the authoritarian regime in Iran, currently in the news for many issues the film spells out. Holy Spider constructs a gaze through Iran’s social status, visible right from the opening sequence to the closing reel. Despite some fictionalization, it is a brutally honest take on the deep-rooted, orthodoxical ideals and their fatal outcomes.
Holy Spider screened at the International Film Festival of India.
"…a brutally honest take on the deep-rooted, orthodoxical ideals and their fatal outcomes."
