Sat Oct 29, 5:30 PM
Director: Ali Abbasi
2022
Denmark, Germany, France, Sweden
117 minutes
Unclassified 18+
“A Taut, True-Crime Procedural Tangled in the Wicked Web of Iranian Patriarchy” Variety
| This haunting, visceral thriller is nothing less than a head-on challenge to Iran’s theocracy. Based on true events (though filmed in Jordan by the expatriate Abbassi), it focuses on the hunt for a serial killer who strangles prostitutes in the Iranian city of Mashhad. Investigative journalist Arezoo (Zar Amir Ebrahimi took out the Best Actress award at Cannes) makes her way through the dark underbelly of the city seeking justice. The police and many in the courts are at best indifferent, and often approving of the religiously inspired killer who claims to be waging a jihad against vice. The line between the religious fundamentalist and Jack the Ripper is easy to cross. This is not your ordinary thriller, but a film whose urgency and outrage lift it to another category.
“profoundly compelling, expertly made, and quite intentionally horrifying.” (Daily Telegraph—UK) “equal parts gripping and disturbing” (Hollywood Reporter) |