Iranian Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who lives in exile following a smear campaign about her love life, wept with joy as she won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Ebrahimi, 41, won for Holy Spider, in which she plays a journalist trying to solve the serial murders of prostitutes in Iran's holy city of Mashhad. "I have come a long way to be on this stage tonight. It was not an easy story. It was humiliation but there was cinema," she told the audience in her acceptance speech on Saturday. Directed by Danish-Iranian Ali Abbasi, Holy Spider was inspired by the true story of a working-class man who killed prostitutes in the early 2000s and became known as the "Spider Killer". The film was not permitted to shoot in Iran and instead was made in Jordan. Ebrahimi became a star in Iran in her early 20s for her supporting role in one of its longest-running soap operas, Nargess. Ebrahimi's character in Holy Spider has also been a victim of lascivious rumours and male predation. The film suggests there was little official pressure to catch the murderer, who ends up a hero among the religious right. "This film is about women, it's about their bodies, it's a movie full of faces, hair, hands, feet, breasts, sex, everything that is impossible to show in Iran," Ebrahimi told the audience. Holy Spider drew several strong reviews in Cannes, with The Hollywood Reporter saying it was "equal parts gripping and disturbing, and not always for the squeamish". — Agencies
