“Holy Spider”

Ali Abbasi, an Iranian director living in Denmark, relied on true events to shoot “Holy Spider” in Jordan, about a journalist from Tehran, Rashimi (the excellent Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival). , which investigates a serial killer who strangles prostitutes in the holy city of Mashad. This one, after being arrested, is considered by many people, from relatives and fellow citizens to elements of the local authorities, as a hero, for having killed the sinful women who contaminated a place of pilgrimage. In “Holy Spider”, the police element of the story serves Abbasi to denounce and deplore the inhumanity, backward mentality and misogyny of much of Iranian society, although the director’s indignation and zeal sometimes lead him to being too demonstrative (read an interview with the director here).

“For Leslie”

In this “indie” film directed by Michael Morris, Oscar nominee for Best Actress Andrea Riseborough plays Leslie of the title, a single mom from Texas who won $100,000 in the lottery, ran out of money, started drinking too much, he alienated his friends and even the son who gave him a second chance, and he returns in disgrace to the town where he was born. No one reaches out to her, except the shy and understanding owner of the local motel. Riseborough deserves better than this walking, wobbly stereotype of the chronic alcoholic who has hit rock bottom in “white trash” misfortune entirely on her own account, she has nowhere to drop dead and is looking for redemption. “For Leslie” is like a bad country & western song, only it’s almost two hours long instead of three minutes (read the movie review here).

“AND THE”

The new film by Jerzy Skolimowski, winner of the Jury and Soundtrack prizes at Cannes and nominated for the Oscar for Best International Film, is, according to the director, a tribute to Robert Bresson’s “Exemplary Pilgrimage”. and an outpouring of love for animals and nature from the filmmaker and his screenplay partner, Ewa Piaskowska. The film focuses on EO the donkey, who lives in a circus where he participates in a number with an artist who adores and pampers him, although the director is not so kind anymore. After a demonstration by animal rights activists, EO is arrested, taken out of the circus and confined to a farm, to end up embarking on a journey through Poland that will lead him to Italy (read the review here).