Mashhad, Iran, a holy city home to the Imam Reza shrine, served, in 2001, as hunting ground for a serial killer known as The Spider. This man, eventually identified as Saeed Hanaei, believed he was acting in the service of God and his city by “cleansing” the streets of sex workers, 16 of whom he brutally murdered. Directed by Ali Abbasi, actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi won the prestigious Best Actress award at Cannes for her leading role as Rahimi, a journalist returning to her hometown to help bring the killer to justice.
Abbasi presents what at first appears as a straightforward tale of cat and mouse, and good versus evil. But upon The Spider’s capture, Rahimi is horrified to discover that he has a great deal of support from his friends and those who agree with his skewed judgment of morality. Abbasi presents this mind-boggling scenario free of exaggeration or sentimentality, broadcasting the disturbing degree to which victims can be dehumanized and perpetrators exalted.
Best Actress Award (Zar Amir Ebrahimi), Cannes 2022
Mehdi Bajestani, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Arash Ashtiani, Forouzan Jamshidnejad, Alice Rahimi, Sara Fazilat
Denmark/Germany/Sweden/France
2022
In Persian with English subtitles
Graphic Violence, Sexual Violence
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre
The History of Concrete
After attending a workshop on pitching saccharine Hallmark movies, John Wilson tries to apply all the same best practices to his documentary about concrete. Frequently absurd and endlessly entertaining detours, asides, and digressions ensue.
NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.
I Am Not a Witch
Rungano Nyoni's acclaimed debut feature is a visually striking satire about a 9-year-old orphan accused of witchcraft in contemporary Zambia. Screening in the latest African Cinema Now! series, The Witch at the Edge of the Screen.
Akashi
In Mayumi Yoshida’s tender drama, struggling artist Kana journeys to Tokyo to attend her grandmother’s funeral. While there, she reconnects with her childhood love and stumbles across a family secret that prompts her to reconsider her place in the world.
Queen at Sea
An academic is pitted against her stepfather in a moral crisis over the care of her mother, who lives with dementia. Winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize and Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance at the 2026 Berlinale.
Image: © Seafaring
Credits
Executive Producer
Ditte Milsted, Christoph Lange
Producer
Sol Bondy, Jacob Jarek, Ali Abbasi
Screenwriter
Ali Abbasi, Afshin Kamran Bahrami
Cinematography
Nadim Carlsen
Editor
Hayedeh Safiyari, Olivia Neergaard-Holm
Production Design
Lina Nordqvist
Original Music
Martin Dirkov
Director
Photo by Nadim Carlsen
Ali Abbasi
Ali Abbasi is a writer and director originally from Iran. He has a BA in architecture and studied directing at the National Film School of Denmark. His feature debut, Shelley (2016) premiered at the Berlinale in 2016 and was released in the US. He is best known for his 2018 film Border, which premiered in Cannes and won the Un Certain Regard Award. The film was chosen as Sweden’s Academy Award entry, was widely released internationally, and won the Danish Film Award. He is currently shooting the TV adaptation of The Last of Us for HBO in Canada.
Filmography: Shelley (2016); Border (2018)