script made, one that shows a side of Iranian life I’d never seen on film–including depictions of drug use, homelessness, and prostitution. The subject matter meant Abbasi couldn’t shoot in Iran , and he has praised his Iranian lead actor, Mehdi Bajestani, for his bravery in taking on the role of the killer. Yet I was struck by the ferocity of his heroine, a female journalist named Rahimi, played by the actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who investigates the crimes when the police won’t.
: Since this movie debuted at Cannes, it feels like the world has changed and we’re all riveted by the street protests in Iran. Can you talk about the release ofYes, people are starting to watch the film in another way. The screenings have been very emotional. It’s like the brutality of this movie has somehow become a reality. The images from Iran, the videos of authorities beating people in the street and killing people, are much more brutal than our movie.
The film is based on real killings of women in the Iranian city of Mashhad from 2000 and 2001. I know you lived in Iran in those years. Were you aware of this history? Yes, yes. Before the serial killings in Mashhad there was another man in Tehran who was raping and killing women as a taxi driver. He got arrested after a few months, but then the killings started in Mashhad. A few months later we had a serial killer in Kerman, which is another big city in Iran. My memories from this period are all about fear—the fear we had as women. I was 20, a university student, and I was so afraid of even taking a taxi.