Despite Iran churning out some great films, there’s no denying the control of civil liberties in the country. Now an Iranian defector has everyone talking about the country surrounding her inspiring circumstances as, Zar Amir Ebrahimi wins an award at Festival de Cannes.
The Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi lives in exile following a smear campaign about her love life. Now the 41-year-old bagged the ‘Best Actress Award’ at the International Cannes Film Festival.
Zar AMIR EBRAHIMI, lauréate du Prix d'interprétation féminine pour HOLY SPIDER (LES NUITS DE MASHHAD) de Ali ABBASI.
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Zar AMIR EBRAHIMI, award winner for Best actress in HOLY SPIDER by Ali ABBASI. #Cannes2022 #Palmares #Awards #HOLYSPIDER #Photocall pic.twitter.com/9Jxw42xZRM— Festival de Cannes (@Festival_Cannes) May 28, 2022
Overwhlemed by joy, the artist posed with her trophy during a photocall after she won the best actress award. She bagged the prize for her part in the work, ‘Holy Spider‘, at the Cannes Film Festival in France, on May 28.
“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 said in her acceptance speech.
In the film Holy Spider, Zar plays a journalist trying to solve the serial murders of prostitutes in Iran’s holy city of Mashhad.
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. He later became known as the ‘Spider Killer’.
Shootoing for the movie was not permitted in Iran, so the filmmaker made it in Jordan instead.
More About Zar Amir Ebrahimi
Zar Amir Ebrahimi became a star in Iran in her early 20s. She is known for her supporting role in one of its longest-running soap operas, Nargess.
Later she had to flee Iran in 2006 after a ‘private video’ of hers leaked. Fearing arrest and lashings from judicial authorities, the actress fled to France.
In recent interviews, the Iranian starlet shared how she had to start her career afresh ‘in a country where she knew no one’. From a household name to a freshie, and now a star again. She has come a long way.
