The Seed of the Sacred Fig (4 Stars)

If you watched the Oscars at the weekend, you might have noticed something curious. A German film was nominated in the category Best International Feature, i.e. best film in a language other than English; and yet the film wasn't in German, not a single word. It was in Farsi, also called Persian, the language spoken in Iran. Most of the film takes place in Teheran, Iran's capital. What's the story behind it?

Note: Teheran is the British spelling of Iran's capital. In American English it's called Tehran.

The film was made in 2024 in Iran by the director Mohammad Rasoulof. It's about the family of Imam, a lawyer in Teheran. After working for 20 years as a lawyer, he's promoted to the position of investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court. This allows him to rent a larger apartment, making it possible for his two daughters to sleep in separate rooms. Rezvan is a university student. Sana is a few years younger, but there's no reference to her being in school.

Despite being unhappy that he's only allowed to pass the sentences recommended by the government, Imam is faithful to the Iranian regime. His daughters are rebellious, sympathising with the demonstrations about the murder of Mahsa Amini (2022) for not covering her head in public. Imam's wife attempts to keep the peace in the family.

Imam is given a gun to protect himself. He carries it to and from work every day. One day the gun disappears from his apartment. He suspects that someone in his family has taken it, but they all suggest that he's lost it. This leads to an atmosphere of paranoia. Nobody trusts anybody.

Can a film with subject matter like this be made in Iran? Obviously not. The director went into hiding and was sentenced to eight years in prison in his absence. He managed to take refuge in a German consulate. From there he was smuggled out of the country. As far as I know, he now lives in Hamburg, but this might not be his final destination.

When he travelled to Germany, he smuggled the film's raw footage with him. It was edited in German studios. This is what's given the film the right to be called a German film.

It's a very powerful family drama. The political aspects are frequently discussed, but the family relationships are in the foreground. My only criticism is that the pacing is too slow, and the film could have been 30 minutes shorter without losing anything.

Holy Spider (4½ Stars)

This is a film made in Persian (Farsi) by Ali Abbasi, an Iranian director who lives in Denmark. It's about Saeed Hanaei, a serial killer in Mashhad in 2000 and 2001. He confessed to 16 murders, but it's suspected that he killed more. The film follows the investigations of Arezoo Rahimi, a female journalist from Teheran who's come to Mashhad to investigate the killings.

The film is in two parts. In the first part Rahimi is hunting the killer, because she doesn't think the police are interested in finding him. Saeed murders prostitutes, and the police think he's helping them by removing immoral women from the streets. The killer has the unusual habit of phoning a reporter, Rahimi's colleague, after every murder to tell him where he's left the body.

In the second part, after his arrest, we see the public outcry. Saeed is popular among veterans from the Iran-Iraq war, and they think he's been wrongly arrested. Saeed claims that he's been carrying out a Jihad against immorality, so they say he's done nothing wrong. When Saeed appears in court, he uses the opportunity to hold religious speeches. He shows no regret for his crimes, except that he's stopped too soon. He says that there are about 200 prostitutes in Mashhad, so it's not enough to have killed only 16 of them.

 "Holy Spider" doesn't hide the killer's identity. It's not a whodunnit. We see him from the beginning as a good husband and father. He loves his wife, he loves his children and he loves Allah. He honestly believes he's doing God's work.

The director wanted to make the film in Iran, but he wasn't given permission, so it was filmed in Jordan. When it was completed, the Iranian govenment made a statement saying it was insulting to Iran. That's one of the differences between a free country and a dictatorship. Films are made in America that criticise the authorities, and they're accepted as an expression of free speech. If a film criticises the Iranian govenment or any aspects of Iranian culture, there are loud complaints.

I almost didn't go to see this film. It's been in the cinema for a few weeks, but I only found out last week that it received several nominations at the Cannes Film Festival, and Zar Amir Ebrahimi was voted Best Actress for her performance as Rahimi. I'm glad I saw the film today. It's ugly in its depiction of violence against women,  but it's a moving thriller, delicately dealing with the problems of life in a misogynist culture. I would have given it five stars, but I've deducted half a star for the smoking in the film. I'm biased against cigarettes, sorry.

A girl walks home alone at night (4 Stars)

This film shows a side of Iran that we don't read about in the news: prostitution, drugs and vampires.

Arash is a hard-working young man who is struggling to take care of his father, who is addicted to heroin. The father gets deep into debt, as all drug addicts do, and the pimp takes Arash's new sports car as payment. When Arash visits the pimp to make a deal to get his car back he finds the pimp dead. He's been killed by a vampire. Arash robs the pimp's money and takes his car back.

Unknown to Arash, he was seen by the vampire, an unnamed beautiful young woman. At least, she looks young. She might be thousands of years old, as old as Persia itself. In the following days she secretly observes Arash. She kills a series of men, including Arash's father, but spares Arash himself.

This is a stylish, beautiful drama that reminds me of Jean Rollin's early films. It doesn't have a well-defined plot, relying on the atmosphere and imagery. In theory the film could have been set anywhere from eastern Russia to the heart of the USA, but the director Ana Lily Amirpour chose to connect it to her own heritage. She's an Iranian who was born in England, so she chose an industrial Iranian town as the setting and picked Iranian actors for this Persian language film.

This is Ana's first feature film, made on a shoestring budget, but it's impressed the film world so much that she's been given a big budget for her second film, "The Bad Batch", which should hit cinemas later this year. She's a role model for all Iranian women: intelligent, confident and successful.