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 ...
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...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
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
