Alternate Best Actor 2022: Mehdi Bajestani in Holy Spider

Mehdi Bajestani did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Saeed Hanei in Holy Spider. 

Holy Spider depicts a reporter trying to track a serial killer who targets prostitutes in Iran. 

Mehdi Bajestani plays the role of the serial killer, whom we know is the serial killer fairly quickly within the narrative, and the film is less about catching the killer than looking at the society around this killer. Bajestani's performance is bluntly very disturbing, and disturbing in a way that is unique within portrayals of a serial killer, no small feat in itself given how oft portrayed of a type of character it is. Bajestani's performance is disturbing in particular because it is so many things in it that make it such a chilling portrait of such a man. On the most immediate surface are the moments of the actual killings. The actual killings are extremely unnerving as Bajestani's performance accentuates two things that make Hanei such a nefarious figure. One aspect is the ease of the transition to the killings. Bajestani never portrays these moments as something that Hanei needs to work up rather the nature of the man is to kill and to kill is not something that is difficult for him. The actual killing that comes off as so quick, but also is truly so sickening is the sense of satisfaction that he presents in everyone. Bajestani doesn't portray it as an urge the man needs to control, rather it is the urge that propels him forward to do so at all times. It is something that gives him great satisfaction and we see this in his intense manner in every moment. It is very much a sexually vicious and horrible act and his face expresses this evil as the innate nature of the man simply doing what it does. 

The performance actually has some things in common with films like The Vanishing, because we also see the serial killer in his home life with his wife and son, as the loving family man. Bajestani is as convincing as the loving family man as the killer, but I think the interesting thing about his work is he doesn't put on a false face in either depiction. In both, he is the same man, and in a very disturbing sense, the man is as comfortable in both lives and therefore doesn't really even hide anything beyond avoiding being caught as a criminal. Bajestani honestly brings a great deal of warmth in the moments that Hanei is interacting with his son. He doesn't subvert either at any point he shows that the man does love his son at every one of his points. He even loves his wife as again Bajestani presents it with real sincerity. The man simply is living as a seemingly normal man successfully there is no strain to this there is nothing suggesting that he isn't comfortable in this life. This may seem like something is missing in Bajestani's performance but this choice to actually make the man as convincing in both lives is essential in crafting the true motivations of this man, which is in part psychopathy, but it isn't only psychopathy that fuels the man. As we see Bajestani doesn't portray the two sides of the man as the real and the fake, or the evil and the good, he rather shows the man at home, and the man living out essentially his hobby. 

We see this in the scenes before the killing itself which Bajestani portrays in a particularly insidious way because it is two-fold, one is the man going about his evil in a way, but the other is the man indulging even before he gets to the killing. We see the scenes of him with the prostitutes before the killing begins and Bajestani is again sincere in the enjoyment of the debauchery even before the killing. He shows that the man loves the act of playing with the prostitutes, not even as prey, but wholly with their services at first. Bajestani very much emphasizes the enjoyment of the man getting out of the fantasies he does enjoy as a pure hypocrite as we will later learn. And with that Bajestani reveals it as part of the disgusting process of the man indulging in this kind of behavior before going about the killing as this merged act. It isn't one other the other, but a combination that brings the man such horrible pleasure as he goes indulging in his appetite for sex and violence in equal measure. The key to this is one scene where one of the prostitute kind of equally enjoys the "game" at first and kind of plays with the whole twisted sensibility a bit. Bajestani is amazing in this scene because of just how scared he shows Hanei becomes in the moment. His manner becomes impotent and almost terrified as the woman gets the upper hand on him and questions him in a way. Bajestani shows the real sick pathetic nature of the man as the moment his fantasy is broken in the slightest he's completely lost. 

Hanei eventually gets caught when the reporter goes undercover and finds him. And the scene of Hanei getting arrested is where we enter the next phase of his performance which is equally disturbing just in a completely different way. This is when Hanei is approached by cops Bajestani basically plays with a kind of slightly ashamed but almost joyful manner of the man just as though he's going to need to explain something silly away. There is no sense of the man being concerned about being caught even rather there is almost a strange kind of pride in him as he's going to be called upon for his crimes. This only worsens as he stands trial for his crimes, despite the joy of his sexual depravity, he positions himself as a moral crusader against "low" women. Here is where we see such true insidious work by Bajestani because he presents Hanei as wholly believing his argument and selling every word of it with the utmost conviction. He is is a man who does believe himself in this delusion that he was doing the right thing all along. Bajestani's whole manner is as a moral crusader firebrand in the courtroom scenes. He brandishes his crimes as accomplishments without a hint of shame or anything other than a disparaging manner to his victims and a despicable attempt to portray himself as morally righteous. We see specific moments where he speaks this fact with his son around and his manner towards his son as basically "Look at what dad did", and Bajestani is outstanding in presenting this moral corruption with such ease. 

The only point in which there is any hesitation whatsoever on the side of Hanei is when his lawyers want to save him from the death penalty by presenting him as insane. Bajestani oddly shows the only pure humanity in the character in the little bit of concern he expresses in seeing how his son will see him if he is seen as insane. Of course, that bit of humanity is wrapped around the diseased idea that he is any kind of moral man and therefore needs to present himself as such to his son. Bajestani is fantastic because he is able to make this derangement so very natural in its state and shows the man basically getting gratification for his crimes based on believing it is what is right. Bajestani's whole performance is this twisted "on the stand testimony" moment of grandiose grandstanding, but for his hideous cause as refuses to be seen as crazy. Even after being sentenced to death Bajestani's performance still exudes a man so confident in his state of being that is particularly horrible to see as he so smugly takes in an "offer" from some men that instead of being executed he will be taken away to freedom. Bajestani through the whole process of Hanei's execution consistently shows this man still soaking up seemingly this sense of righteousness as though he will get away with his crimes, and makes these moments particularly frustrating because of how genuine they feel. In turn, it is hard not to feel some catharsis when it is revealed the whole "escape" was nothing but a ruse to get him to the execution chamber without raising a fuss. Bajestani's performance is great at the moment because you finally see the illusion shattered and since his imprisonment a real sense of fear of actually receiving justice for his crimes. Bajestani presents this as the man finally realizing that his society won't protect his hatred of women up to this point. Bajestani showing the fundamental fall of the man becoming a pathetic mess as he can no longer hold onto his delusions. This is a great performance by Mehdi Bajestani as he doesn't give one disturbing portrait of depravity but multiple. He is the psychopath, he is the disgusting sexual sadist, but perhaps worst of all, he is utterly convincing as a man who views his moral depravity as a righteous cause.