Lantern to open Iranian film ‘Holy Spider’ on Friday

Above : The Iranian movie “Holy Spider” is slated to open Friday at the Magic Lantern Theatre. (Photo/Utopia)

I’ve always enjoyed Iranian films. Among my favorites are those directed by Jafar Panahi , including “The White Balloon,” “The Circle,” “Offside,” “This Is Not a Film” and “Taxi.”

But there are others, too. Majid Majidi’s “Children of Heaven,” for example. Or those by Asghar Farhadi ,” which include “A Separation” and “The Salesman,” both of which won Best Foreign Language Academy Awards.

All of which makes me happy that an Iranian film is scheduled to open Friday at the Magic Lantern Theatre . Titled “Holy Spider,” it is based on a true story about a serial killer targeting sex workers.

Directed and co-written by Ali Abbasi , the film is attracting mostly good reviews.

Donald Clarke of the Irish Times wrote, “The whole film is pitched between a howl of rage and a gasp of disbelief.”

Alexandra Heller-Nicholas of AWFJ.org wrote, “Tight, taut and not one beat out of place, ‘Holy Spider’ captivates from start to finish; it gets its claws in and refuses to let go.”

Mark Hanson of Slant Magazine wrote, “ ‘Holy Spider’ trickily manages to bridge the gap between social realism and exploitation cinema in a way that hints at how both are rooted in a similar place of gritty authenticity.”

With all that’s going on in Iran right now, violence directed toward women would seem to be an appropriate topic for a filmmaker to tackle.

I’ll update as the week progresses.