Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who had to leave Iran for France in 2008 following a sex scandal, was crowned the prize for female interpretation on Saturday for her role as an investigator in the thriller Ali Abbasi, Nights of Mashhad (Holy Spider).
“This film is about women, their bodies, this film is filled with hatred, hands, breasts, everything that cannot be shown in Iran. Thank you Ali Abassi for being so crazy, so generous. Thank you for this powerful art,” she declared, visibly moved, on the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière.
The actress spoke in Farsi while receiving her award. “Tonight I have the feeling of having had a very long journey before arriving here on this stage (…) a journey marked by humiliations”, she said, thanking France for the to have welcomed. A country with “happy people who love to be unhappy”.
Born in 1981 in Tehran, she participated in her first short films as an assistant director from the age of 16. Having become an actress, she studied theater at the Islamic Azad University.
The recognition of the general public comes mainly from his participation in the television series Komakam Kon. His role in the cult series in Iran Nargess ensures him great notoriety. It is in this context that she is associated with a sextape scandal where she is implicated, despite her denials.
Following this affair, the films in which she participated and which were about to be released had to be returned with other actresses. He was also forbidden to shoot in new feature films or appear on television.
She soon leaves her country for Paris. She learns French on her own and does odd jobs.
“I didn’t know anything about cinema in France. There was no one to help me. It took me two or three years to understand where I was,” she told Le Monde newspaper.
In 2017, she starred in Tehran Tabou, by director Ali Soozandeh, selected at the Cannes Film Festival in Critics’ Week.
“I know the difficulties Iranian women face every day,” she said at the Nights of Mashhad press conference. “Several of my journalist friends, and in particular women, left the country just after me,” said the one who spoke on stage of “her sister Golshifteh” Farahani, also Iranian who left her country and now lives in France.
