“Holy Spider”. Virtuosity and sensationalism
Born in 1981 in Iran, but holding a master's degree in architecture from Sweden and then a degree in filmmaking from Denmark, where he has since settled, Ali Abbasi is a filmmaker with a spectacular career. After several short films, he made his directorial debut with Shelley (2016), a drama with horror elements that had its world premiere in the Panorama section of the Berlinale (and whose cast included Romanian actress Cosmina Stratan). With his second feature, Border (2018), an unlikely and inventive mix of genres – fantasy, thriller, romance, and socio-political drama – about otherness, Ali Abbasi graduated into Cannes, where he won the Un Certain Regard prize. And with Holy Spider (2022), his latest feature, the filmmaker was promoted to the big league – the Cannes Official Competition, where actress Zar Amir-Ebrahimi walked away with the Best Female Actor Award.
Journalist and film critic. Curator for some film festivals in Romania. At "Films in Frame" publishes interviews with both young and established filmmakers.
