The film “Holy Spider” or “Holy Spider”, by Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi, was among the works in competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
The film, which began screening in Russia on May 11, is based on the true story of an Iran-Iraq war veteran who kills 16 prostitutes in the early 2000s in the Iranian city of Mashhad.
According to reports, the Russian Ministry of Culture withdrew its distribution license less than a week after it aired, according to Agence France-Presse.
“The film has been canceled in theaters because it contains elements prohibited by Russian law,” the ministry said, without further details.
“Unfortunately, the news is true,” said Anastasia Kruglyakova, the representative of the company that distributed the film, in a press release of which Agence France-Presse received a copy.
In 2022, Zaar Amir Ebrahimi won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in the film “Sacred Spider”, in which she plays a journalist investigating the murders of prostitutes.
Iran protested to France after the Cannes Film Festival chose the film among the works in competition, calling the decision “wrong and political”.
As for the director of “Sacred Spider”, he did not obtain permission to film the work in Iran and was forced to make the work in Jordan.
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