Ali Abbasi's serial killer thriller 'Holy Spider' attracted strong attention and interest after its world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Festival.
As the festival drew to a close on Saturday, the feature film jury honoured Abbasi's film with the award for Best Actress during the prize gala at the Grand Théâtre Lumière.
Holy Spider
Rahimi, a young female journalist, travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer targeting sex workers. As she draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain when the murderer is embraced by many as a hero. Based on the true story of the 'Spider Killer' Saeed Hanaei, who saw himself as on a mission from God as he killed 16 women between 2000 and 2001.
Zar Amir Ebrahimi received the accolade for her role as a journalist investigating the serial killings of sex workers in the holy Iranian city of Mashhad.
The Palme d'Or winner, 'Triangle of Sadness' by Sweden's Ruben Östlund, has Danish co-producer Per Damgaard Hansen of Coproduction Office on board.
The winner of Best Screenplay, Sweden's 'Boy from Heaven' by Tarik Saleh, is co-produced by Denmark's Monica Hellström and Signe Byrge Sørensen for Final Cut for Real.
The Cannes Festival 2022 ran from 17 to 28 May. Read more at festival-cannes.com.
Iranian-born Ali Abbasi, who graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in 2011, made his feature film debut with the horror film 'Shelley', selected for the Berlinale. His second feature film, the Swedish-Danish fable 'Border', won the main prize in 2018 in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.
'Holy Spider' is his third film, produced by Jacob Jarek for Profile Pictures in co-production with German One Two Films by Sol Bondy. Danish theatrical release is set for 13 October.
