Iran protested to France against the participation of the film Holy Spider/Mashhad nights At the Cannes Film Festival. The film tells the true story of a serial killer who murdered prostitutes in the holy city of Mashhad, and who during his trial had claimed to have wanted to clean the streets of Mashhad of Vice.
Mashhad nights Danish director of Iranian origin Ali Abbasi participated to the official festiva feature films competitionl, including 75th edition ended last week by A closing ceremony during which the main actress, Zahra Amir Ebrahimi, Iranian exiled and resident in France, won the Best Actress Prize.
Zahra Amir Ebrahimi plays the role of a young journalist from Tehran, who personally tracks down a serial killer who committed 16 murders with which prostitutes were victims in Mashhad, in northeast Iran. Mashhad is one of the most important chemite cities because it houses the mausoleum of Imam Reza, in honor of Ali al-Reza, the 8th of the twelve imams of Duodecomain Shiism. In her quest for truth, the journalist is confronted with the machismo of a patriarchal Iranian society.
“” We have filed an official protest to the French government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ”said the Minister of Culture and Islamic Orientation Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili on state television.
“” We will certainly take this question in consideration in our cultural exchanges with similar governments ”he added, without providing additional details.
The Iranian cinematographic organization affiliated with the Ministry of Culture has also criticized the festival for having screened the film and having given it a prize, claiming that the festival had committed a ” biased and politicized act by rewarding a false and disgusting film“. She estimated that Mashhad nights presents a ” Dark and distorted image of Iranian society and openly insults the beliefs of millions of Shiite Muslims ».
Zahra Amir Ebrahimi had made herself known in Iran in the early 2000s, especially thanks to a role she had played in the series Nargessbut she had been forced to leave the country and take refuge in France in 2008, about two years after a sex scandal touched it.
The movie poster “Les Nuits de Mashhad”
Mashhad nights was one of the two Iranian films that participated in the official competition of the Cannes Film Festival, with Leila’s Brothers Directed by Saeed Rostaee, in which he tells the story of a family on the verge of disintegration. Leila’s Brothers won the prize for the best film from the Fipresci jury.
A third Iranian film, Tasavor (Imagine) De Ali Behrad was in competition in the parallel section “the week of criticism”. Tasavor is a nocturnal road movie in the streets of Tehran, based on a succession of sketches played by two actors: one always plays the same character, that of a taxi driver, while the other, the woman, embodies several characters.
Iranian cinema has acquired international renown thanks to personalities such as Abbas Kiarostami, who won the Palme d’Or in Cannes in 1997, Mohammad Rasoulof, whose film An honest man had won the Un Certain Regard Prize in Cannes in 2017, and the film The devil does not existthe golden bear in Berlin in 2020and Asghar Farhadi, who won the prize for the best scenario at the 2016 Cannes Festival for The customer, The Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival for A hero (ex aequo with compartment n ° 6 of Juho Kuosmanen) in 2021and two Oscars of the best international film, in 2012 for A separation and in 2017 for The customer. He was also a member of the 75 jurye Cannes Film Festival in 2022.
Neïla Driss
