There is a moment in Holy Spider (2022) when a serial killer (played by Mehdi Bajestani) holds tightly the throat of a reporter Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) who posed as a prostitute to catch him.

The murderer of 16 Iranian women yells at her, “Who are you?” The female character responds, “I am Zar!,” thus breaking the so-called fourth wall with the public and indicating that, for a moment, she is not a fictional character but herself as a woman.

Since her self-exile in Paris in 2008, Zar Amir Ebrahimi has been facing a sentence that in Iran would take her to prison and earn her 99 lashes, the result of a home videotape that was stolen from her property which shows the actress’ sexual relationship with her then partner.

The so-called crime against morality, according to the Islamic Republic of Iran, made one of the most promising actresses flee her country.

 

In the 2022 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, Amir Ebrahimi became the first Iranian woman to win the Best Actress award. The announcement transcended the film. In Holy Spider, the actress’ experience was part of her narrative and the world was watching her take up the microphone to defend the right to exist in her own country.

The death last September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the hands of Iran’s morals and decency police for not wearing her hijab correctly motivated Iranian society to rise in street demonstrations. The protests forged a social movement called The Women’s Revolution, which the government of the supreme leader Ali Khamenei wants to crush and silence with violence, arrests and executions.

Sentenced by the Iranian regime, the 41-year-old actress has received death threats from extremists in her country. Although Holy Spider is based on real events about a serial killer who strangled 16 prostitutes between 2000 and 2001, the intention of director Ali Abbasi was to show the misogyny of the Iranian press and society, which treated the criminal as a hero, justifying his intention to “clean” the streets of the so-called holy city.

In a telephone interview, Amir Ebrahimi talks about what her journey has been like with Holy Spider which was entered for Golden Globe consideration and was among the 15 shortlist finalists in the Oscar category for Best International Feature. The Danish co-production was filmed in one month in Jordan, thus escaping harassment from the Iranian government.

How has it been since you won the best actress award at Cannes?

I have to say that moment felt out of this world. I knew that Holy Spider was representing a reality that the group of people in front of and behind the scenes of the film were committed to portraying about Iran. Cannes helped amplify our message with people who are crying out for justice, who are brave and who have hope.

To see the stories of women that Holy Spider represents – I should even say men – is to know that they put their lives at risk on the streets of Iran. Also, the young actresses in this film inspired my work, thinking about their reality. They fight every day for justice, freedom and better values for their lives.

I am very grateful to the people who come to see Holy Spider, opening their hearts and minds to this bitter reality. It brings warmth to my heart to know the attention of the world.

Do you consider that Holy Spider is more than a movie? Perhaps a declaration of principles, a letter of freedom or a message asking for help inside a bottle thrown into the sea?

Yes, I think it is. From the moment we started shooting Holy Spider, I knew we were making a very unique film. For its story, director, entire team of actors and production staff.

Originally, this film was going to be about something else, focusing on denouncing misogyny and disdain for Iranian women, even when there was a serial killer involved.

But the protests that have taken place these months by women in Iran have given relevance to how the film reflects the conditions they live in, in every way and in all socioeconomic circles.

I experienced it myself until I was forced to escape in 2008. I consider what women are demanding as a new revolution. All they are asking is that their human rights be respected.

In this awards season, what has it been like to see Holy Spider with audiences around the world, festival after festival or at private functions in Hollywood?

I began to see it in a different way because it became a window into a reality of a country whose women we can now see on the streets protesting in videos and social networks where physical and verbal violence is carried out against them. The news that comes from the unofficial media and citizens is terrifying when we learn of murders, executions and thousands of arrests.

I must also say that not only Holy Spider, but many films about Iran these days, are more than movies. While filmmakers filming in Iran must resort to plots full of metaphors to denounce what is happening to the people and thus escape government censorship, which carries a prison sentence, we, filming in Jordan, were able to say things more directly, as it was the goal of our director Ali Abbasi.

All these tragic stories of outrage and murdered women really happened, with the reaction of the official press and readers who began to defend and even exalt the murderer of women being just as terrible.

Talk about your character, the journalist named Rahimi. Here we have a woman searching for the truth, committed to the truth and willing to give her life for the truth.

For me, the press should always be free and independent. While researching my character as Rahimi, I realized that violence against women also happens in the media world itself.

That makes Holy Spider go beyond just being a movie about Iran. Women like my character exist everywhere. I checked with reporters from Europe dedicated to covering the problems they face when they go out on the streets, with the people they interview, even with their editors because they are women.

Women journalists around the world face problems like the ones reflected in the film every day, in each investigation and each story. At the same time, I am concerned that women in Iran, not just reporters, face the kind of discrimination that we show in the film. Everything they do they have to fight to achieve and they take risks trying to make life better for everyone, men and women.

It was very sad for me that when researching the reporters in Iran, I couldn’t find any role models. The journalists who are looking for the truth and publish it are from the foreign press.

I wanted to give Rahimi the feeling that she is putting more than her own job at risk all the time, in contrast to what happens to any man, in her daily work routine. I found out about this after my daily experience of living in Iran as an actress and a professional.

Possibly women in Iran will see Rahimi as an example and want to be a journalist like her.

I never think in those terms. I have journalist friends both in Iran and in my exile. I can tell you that my journalist side also leads me to distance myself from the issues. You cannot put your emotions into your work. I learned that by producing a series for the BBC with topics about Persian society.

But doing Holy Spider did make me question how far I could work as a journalist and when I would be forced to cross the line and get involved. You are obviously affected by the people around you and you are a human being who wants to react and do something.

These are questions that I have to this day, especially when I see that in recent months, the government has killed journalists who decided to publish the truth by committing themselves to their community. They accused me of being a spy because of a photograph, not just because I was a journalist.

Unfortunately, in Iran, anyone who wants to become a journalist must think about it more than twice because of the consequences and reprisals they may experience.

Do you have hope for your country?

Of course! I am very optimistic, even knowing about this level of violence and outrage, being saddened by the death of protesters, including many children. I think the broken-hearted people are demanding more and the government knows there is resistance across the country.

It is a movement very different from the other protests. The people no longer want this government. They no longer want the Islamic Republic. They want the return of their Iran, as well as their freedom and their rights.

I think they will fight to the end. This is sad because there will be bloodshed. But in its persistence, I see the light at the end.

Translated by Mario Amaya