Sacred spider review

Saeed Azimi (Mehdi Bajestani) is a respected pillar of his community, a devout Shia Muslim and Iran-Iraq war veteran with a loving family and a dirty secret: he leads a double life, killing prostitutes at every opportunity. he can. . Turn the page. Like the Yorkshire Ripper and many other serial killers before him, he claims he has a divine mission to clean up the streets.

Courageous investigative journalist Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi), who hopes to bring him to justice, is often hampered in her attempts to do her job by the heartbreaking sexism of colleagues and random members of the public, some of whom are officially legitimized. and some of which are more subtly entrenched and socially limited.

Given these elements, the stage should be set for effective horror, mixing elements of something like Alfred Hitchcock. Frenzy with The silence of the lambs, but it never works that way. Despite Ebrahimi’s best efforts, Rahimi’s reporter feels supported. Instead, the film spends an interminable amount of time with Saeed, dwelling intently on his crimes, perhaps in an attempt to immerse us in his perspective, but to what extent is unclear.

As this is a film based on true events, it is certainly disturbing to see the support of the local community leaders (apparently there were many people following the killer’s spirit of revenge against the prostitutes) and the scenes revealing this kind of context. they are intermittent. convincing. But the film as a whole feels frustrated and confused in its attempts to stage a seedy game of cat-and-mouse based on events in which real women have lost their lives, a fact that seems to require an extra level of clarity and attention. to the perspective. . victims. . True Crime doesn’t have to be bland, but this particular effort leaves a slight aftertaste in your mouth.