By now, you’re hopefully familiar with Ali Abbasi’s“Holy Spider” film premiering at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. We premiered exclusive photos last weekend, a clip from the film was released and now a full trailer from the film has been released in what feels like a sure sign that the producers of the film are very confident about it.
READ MORE: Cannes 2022 Preview: 25 Must-See Films To Watch
Iranian-Danish film director and screenplay writer Ali Abbasi is definitely a filmmaker you should know and if the name sounds vaguely familiar it’s because his 2018 film, “Border,” a Swedish fantasy film about trolls in love, who also live amongst humans and work for the Swedish Customs Service, won the Un Certain Regard award at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. It was also selected as the Swedish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards.
Abbasi moves to the Iranian side of his roots and heritage for “Holy Spider,” which sounds like a taut crime procedural/serial killer drama about a journalist trying to find a killer who is murdering prostitutes in Iran. The film stars Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and Mehdi Bajestani and sounds like it could cause controversy in Iran.
Female journalist Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer who believes he is doing the work of God, cleansing the streets of sinners by murdering sex workers. As the body count mounts and Rahimi draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain as the ‘Spider Killer’ is embraced by many as a hero. Based on the horrific true story of serial killer Saeed Hanaei, acclaimed writer-director Ali Abbasi (Border) unveils a gripping crime thriller and a daring indictment of a society in which rough justice is routinely a fact of life.
Written by Abbasi and Afshin Kamran Bahrami, French company Wild Bunch is handling sales—they have such an onslaught of great films each year—and while there’s no U.S. distributor or release date yet, presumably that’s all about to change soon. Watch the new trailer below.