When Iran’s minister of culture and Islamic guide saw ‘Holy Spider’, he said of it that “had insulted the beliefs of millions of Muslims and the Shia population of the world”, and announced that if anyone from Iran had participated they would be punished. It is surprising that the country that gave birth to Abbas Kiarostami, Asghar Farhadi or Jafar Panahi keep watching the movies like an enemyespecially when it enjoys an incredible international reputation (many times, that is true, precisely thanks to tapes that criticize the Iranian government and society).
The film in question, which we have been able to see at the Seville Festival, does not insult anyone’s beliefs (unless you are a psychopath). It is indeed, a fairly accurate portrayal of the Saeed Hanaei case, a confessed murderer who killed prostitutes because he considered them morally corrupt women… And, when he was caught, he received the support of part of the Iranian population and the press. It is the story of a madman who uses religion as an excuse, of a sexual patient without redemption, and of a judicial system as corrupt as it is broken.
The Spider Murders
‘Holy Spider’ is not, on paper, an Iranian film: it is a co-production between Denmark, Germany, Sweden and France… but its director is Iranian, and takes much of the tone of country thrillers and their moral ambiguity to narrate some events that, two decades ago, divided society from a place that was already on the tightrope between religious conservatism and openness, showing that the current protests do not come from two days ago and have been cooking over fire very very slow. Cinema, as always, is a method to understand our present.
As I was saying, the film is not Iranian, but its director is. This is Ali Abbasi, author of the fabulous ‘Border’, who knows exactly what he is talking about: during the time narrated in the film he was studying at the University of Tehran and had to see the demonstrations in favor of the freedom of a murderer of sixteen peoplesomething reflected as it is on the tape, surprising as it may seem from a Western point of view.
‘Holy Spider’ is, in addition to the portrait of an Iran that does not finish withering, an absolutely exemplary thriller and one of the most exciting films of the year. But, despite the fact that the game of cat and mouse is great, with scenes of tension on the surface, the most interesting thing about the film is his treatment of sexism in a battered Iran from which only a few tried to leave then.
Does whatever a spider can
Fleeing from all possible conventions, ‘Holy Spider’ shows femininity in turn-of-the-century Iran as a trap in which being born a woman meant having a free pass to derision, sexual abuse and even constant blaming of the victim. It doesn’t happen only to the murdered prostitutes, whose deaths are justified by not being pure, but to the journalist who is handling the case, who, after a case of sexual harassment in her previous job, has earned the nickname of slut.
Throughout the film, a sadly too close “They have asked for it” that makes us doubt until the last second about the end of the film. And it is that Saeed Hanaei not only has popular support, but also government support: during the trial, it seems impossible that this confessed murderer who evades any possible legal trap is going to be convicted. They are scenes of constant suffocation… whose sick arguments are not far from what we can see in certain dark corners of social networks right now.
In the background, in ‘Holy spider’ everything has to do with sex. Rahimi is sexually harassed by the police for smoking with one of them (enough act to consider that she is light-hearted), Saeed does not finish admitting that his deplorable acts give him pleasure, his wife chooses sexual submission as a way to excuse the possible infidelities of her husband… In a country as apparently asexualized as Iran, sex grows in increasingly perverse, impossible and dangerous ways. As an innate and inseparable part of the human being, the prohibition of the sexualized gaze is a breeding ground for psychopaths.
Dialoguing with the present
But ‘Holy Spider’ wouldn’t be as good as it is if it weren’t for some unique characters that prove that knowing and understanding is not the same as empathizing and justifying. Not only the murderer convinced of his innocence in the eyes of Allah or the journalist willing to die in exchange for being considered valid in the industry again, but also all the secondary, from the prostitute with whom the film opens to the judge possibly corrupt: the layers of depth are unfathomable, and demonstrate Abbasi’s good hand at portray those who apparently live integrated but really live on the margins of society.
Abbasi shows a dark, chaotic, sad Iranin which fear is rampant, not only in the form of “the spider”, but of religious obligation, sexist sexual impunity and extreme reactionism that fits perfectly with the current situation in the country, with continuous protests: the dialogue between what was and what is Iran It has been a coincidence, but also a sign that not everything is what the regime has wanted to paint these years: the germ of the revolution had already been there for decades.
‘Holy Spider’ is an Iranian thriller shot outside of Iran (it is Turkey, in fact, to avoid conflicts) but dares to stand up to a long-corrupted regime, from whom taking shame is as easy as putting a mirror in front of him. Saeed, and the social pardon that he almost achieved, is not only part of an incredible true story: it is also the testimony of a recent era that sounds like a remote past, and at the same time an urgent future. It is a film shot with crudeness , without ambiguity or leaving anything to tell. Abbasi has managed to record one of the best works of the year at the cost of earning the enmity of the Iranian regime. Because there are films that must be told.