Review: Holy Spider

Holy spider is your usual serial killer thriller, also it is not, at the same time. It is a dramatized version of real incidents happened in the city of Mashhad in Iran two decades ago. The filmmaker has tried to reenact the events, what possibly has been, from different perspectives, that of the killer, the victims and a woman journalist, who has to go through a number of roadblocks on her journey to reveal the truth. 

The movie extensively and carefully put forward discussions on the effect of war, religion and toxic masculinity and women empowerment/freedom among the many relevant topics it touches upon. The sad state of mixing politics and religion in the area and the treatment of women in convenience to the male hegemony is portrayed almost accurately to the realisation that nothing has changed and it may not change for a long time till the zealots are in charge and allowed to take matters into their hands, ready to play God or their obligation to the higher power, in terms of cleansing the society morally as they claim, though most of it are targeted to the poor women among themselves. 

You can only watch in horror as the killer proclaims himself of doing holy work or his own "jihad"on decadence and upon during the trial garners a cult like following and support to the extent that he is almost made a hero of and urged to continue his work while the authorities are too scared to do anything about it fearing public outrage of going against the religion and faith of masses to save their own images and protect their supremacy. 

Although the events and circumstances in this movie has happened almost 20 years back and in the light of recent events it is clearly evident that nothing much has changed and how corrupted the whole system of governance as well as the religion is and how it is having an impact on the future generations as well, leading them on to the path of misogyny and false beliefs  which in turn makes the lives of people, especially of women, a literal torture and hell in the region. 

The characterization of the lead female character is immaculate. Zahra Amir Ebrahimi has done complete justice to her portrayal of Rahimi. 

If you are a zealot or a believer of the status quo of genders, or have anger issues or get easily frustrated, this movie is not for you as it may have a lot of triggers which may burst your cute bubble. 

But, as for the general public, this is a great piece of art and the platform which the movies has as an artform used in the right manner to raise relevant and disturbing questions and start a much needed dialogue, though the hopes for that happening are almost non existent in the current state of affairs. 

Kudos to Ali Abbasi for his boldness and craftsmanship to bring this story and reality into light and reach out to more people in these times, especially!