We never dared': Cannes winner says Iran's next revolution will be femaleIranian actress Zar Amir who was awarded Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival 2022, said next revolution will be brought on by women
by Agence France-Presse
26-06-2022 19:50
in Entertainment
Iranian actress and director, awarded Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival 2022, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, poses during a photo session in Paris on 21 June, 2022. Photo; JOEL SAGET / AFP
Iran's next revolution will be brought on by women taking back the freedoms denied to them in the Islamic republic, said Zar Amir Ebrahimi, the winner of this year's Best Actress award at Cannes.
--
Amir Ebrahimi took the prize for her role in Holy Spider as a journalist in Iran who investigates a serial killer murdering prostitutes, and who has to contend with a deeply misogynistic society placing many obstacles in her way.
ALSO READ: Ukrainians take part in LGBTQ rights movement in Poland
2022 BEST ACTRESS AT CANNES But in contrast to the movie's hopelessly grim take on attitudes towards women in Iran which became an Islamic republic after the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Shah Amir Ebrahimi said she was now detecting signs that women were finally fighting back.
--
If there ever is another revolution in Iran, it will be a revolution by women,
she said in an interview with AFP. Women are fighting to keep the few rights they have in this society. They are rolling up their sleeves and they dress differently. They go out and sing, and form clandestine dance groups. There has been so much pressure on us, we're ready to explode. That's why I have hope. Change has to happen,
she said. ALSO READ: Kagame defends Rwanda on rights as Commonwealth expands
We never dared Young women were even daring to defy the decades-old law that makes loose clothing and a headscarf compulsory for women in public, she said.
We never dared take off the headscarf in the street, said the 41-year-old actress, but the young generation, they do.
Directed by Danish-Iranian Ali Abbasi, Holy Spider is inspired by the true story of a working-class man who killed prostitutes in the early 2000s and became known as the Spider Killer .
--
Abbasi was denied permission to film in Iran and it was ultimately shot in Jordan.
Amir Ebrahimi said she herself has first-hand experience of unequal treatment of women in Iran.
She became a star in her early twenties for her supporting role in one of the country's longest-running soap operas, Nargess , but saw her life and career fall apart when a sex tape featuring her and her boyfriend was leaked online in 2006.
Amir Ebrahimi initially denied being on the tape, acknowledging only years later that it had been really her.
Her boyfriend had nothing to do with the leak, she told AFP.
We were very much in love,
she said, blaming instead a mutual friend with access to our computer for releasing the footage. Intimate recordings of celebrities are big business in Iran, she said, estimating that the tape featuring her raked in some $3 million on the black market.
The high-profile case was taken on personally by Tehran's chief prosecutor, and the leak's author put on trial and punished.
Like in the film' But far from getting the public support she hoped for, Amir Ebrahimi herself was shunned by her acting colleagues who felt she had endangered Iranian cinema , and found public opinion to be firmly on the side of the man who had leaked the tape.
It was like in the film, where the killer becomes a hero, she said. This shows a sick society, a society that is not accustomed to recognising women.
She added: That is exactly what the government always wants, that everybody becomes everybody else's enemy.
But Amir Ebrahimi said she holds no resentment towards Iranian society.
Even though it destroyed me, I understand that we are all victims of tradition and of a religious society.
Amir Ebrahimi left Iran during the scandal, traumatised , and now lives in Paris.
It's not easy to start from scratch when you've already known success, she said. You arrive somewhere and you don't even speak the language. I took the metro and couldn't understand a word.
Finding acting work was not easy in her newly-adopted country where film professionals usually wanted to type-cast her.
They see me as a refugee, of course. Or an immigrant, of course. It's rare that I get other offers,
she said. This is likely to change after her global success a month ago at Cannes, the world's biggest film festival.
The prize changes everything. I now get so many messages I can't answer them all, she smiled. I'm happy.
Agence France-Presse
#CelebratingLegends with the HUAWEI P50. READ MORE!
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
12/06/2026
A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs Scripps Research scientists developed a vaccine that teaches the immune system to rapi...
11/06/2026
The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...
11/06/2026
Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...
We never dared': Cannes winner says Iran's next revolution will be femaleIranian actress Zar Amir who was awarded Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival 2022, said next revolution will be brought on by women
