• A journalist from Tehran tracks down a killer of prostitutes.

  • "The Nights of Mashhad" follows his investigation strewn with pitfalls.

  • The actress, exiled in France, received the prize for female interpretation at the Cannes Film Festival 2022.

Zar Amir Ebrahimi seduced the jury chaired by Vincent Lindon and won the interpretation prize at Cannes this year.

His performance in

The Nights of Mashhad

by Ali Abbasi is breathtaking.

The Iranian actress, who notably participated in

Shirin

and the animated film

Tehran Taboo

, plays a journalist determined to find a murderer of prostitutes.

“I cannot be one hundred percent happy because I am thinking of the Iranian people who are suffering, she declared at the Cannes press conference following the presentation of her prize.

To be there tonight with this award is a miracle, like being able to make this film.

The adaptation of an authentic news story transposed to Jordan in order to avoid the wrath of Iranian censorship.

A message for Iranian women

"My research to prepare the film showed me how difficult it is to practice the profession of journalist when you are an Iranian woman," she says.

His character, brave to discover the truth in an often indifferent and sometimes downright hostile environment, resembles Zar Amir Ebrahimi in his resilience.

“Being there is also a message for Iranian women,” she says.

In Iran, people wanted to erase me from the cinema, push me to suicide, this award is a good way to respond to them.

»

Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent

By clicking on "

I ACCEPT

", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners

I ACCEPT

And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.

More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.

The actress, who lives in France, has embraced her new existence far from her country.

“You have to consider exile as an opportunity,” she says.

In the same way as his reward for

Les Nuits de Mashhad

which now leads him in the footsteps of his colleague and friend Golshifteh Farahani.

Movie theater

Golshifteh Farahani: "Art, poetry and people keep Iran alive because they love it"

Movie theater

Award-winning at Cannes, the Iranian film "Leila and her brothers" banned from screening in Iran

  • Movie theater

  • Cinema outings

  • Cannes Film Festival 2022

  • Iran