International Disruptors: ‘Holy Spider’ Producer Sol Bondy On The Challenges Of Bringing Ali Abbasi’s Iran-Set Oscar Contender To Light & Why They Hope It Will “Serve” The Revolution

deadline.com:

Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we’ll shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S.

shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week, we’re talking with German indie producer Sol Bondy of One Two Films. Bondy, whose credits include Angry Indian Goddesses and The Tale, most recently produced Iranian crime thriller Holy Spider which is Denmark’s submission to the 2023 Academy Awards and he tells us how challenging it was to get this impactful project off the ground.  A few days after Ali Abbasi’s second directorial effort Border premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018, Danish producer Jacob Jarek approached Sol Bondy to co-produce the Iranian helmer’s next project Holy Spider.

Jarek, who had produced Abbasi’s debut feature Shelley, had previously worked with Bondy on Icelandic titles Under the Tree and The County and with beguiling body horror romance Border generating much buzz along the Croisette, the producers were keen to strike while the iron was hot. (Border went on to win Un Certain Regard that year.) “I didn’t know anything about it,” says Bondy of the project. “I just said ‘yes – for sure.’ My producer’s instinct just kicked in although, to be fair, every producer in Cannes probably would have said yes to that.

It was a no-brainer.”  The film was a daring proposition but one that aligned nicely with Bondy’s One Two Films banner: A film noir based on the true story of the “Spider Killer” Saeed Hanaei, who saw himself as on a mission from God as he killed 16 women who were sex workers between 2000 and 2001 in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad.