<p>The Cannes Film Festival on Saturday awarded its best actress award to Iranian Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who lives in exile in France, for her role in "Holy Spider".</p>.<p>In the movie, she plays a journalist trying to solve the serial murders of prostitutes in the holy city of Mashhad.</p>.<p>"I have come a long way to be on this stage tonight," she told the audience at the awards ceremony.</p>.<p>"It was not an easy story, it was humiliation, it was solitude but there was cinema, it was darkness but there was cinema. Now I'm standing in front of you on a night of joy."</p>.<p>"Holy Spider", directed by Iranian Ali Abbasi, 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".</p>.<p>Abbassi was denied permission to film in Iran and it was ultimately shot in Jordan.</p>.<p>Ebrahimi became a star in Iran in her early twenties for her supporting role in one of its longest-running soap operas, "Nargess".</p>.<p>But her life and career fell apart shortly after the show ended, when a sex tape was leaked online in 2006 which, it was claimed, featured her.</p>.<p>Ebrahimi's character in "Holy Spider" has also been a victim of lascivious rumours and male predation.</p>.<p>The film suggests there was little official pressure to catch the murderer, who ends up a hero among the religious right.</p>.<p>"This film is about women, it's about their bodies, it's a movie full of faces, hair, hands, feet, breasts, sex -- everything that is impossible to show in Iran," Ebrahimi said.</p>.<p>"Thank you, Ali Abbasi for being so crazy and so generous and for directing against all odds this powerful thing."</p>.<p>Cinema, she added, has "practically saved my life".</p>
<p>The Cannes Film Festival on Saturday awarded its best actress award to Iranian Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who lives in exile in France, for her role in "Holy Spider".</p>.<p>In the movie, she plays a journalist trying to solve the serial murders of prostitutes in the holy city of Mashhad.</p>.<p>"I have come a long way to be on this stage tonight," she told the audience at the awards ceremony.</p>.<p>"It was not an easy story, it was humiliation, it was solitude but there was cinema, it was darkness but there was cinema. Now I'm standing in front of you on a night of joy."</p>.<p>"Holy Spider", directed by Iranian Ali Abbasi, 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".</p>.<p>Abbassi was denied permission to film in Iran and it was ultimately shot in Jordan.</p>.<p>Ebrahimi became a star in Iran in her early twenties for her supporting role in one of its longest-running soap operas, "Nargess".</p>.<p>But her life and career fell apart shortly after the show ended, when a sex tape was leaked online in 2006 which, it was claimed, featured her.</p>.<p>Ebrahimi's character in "Holy Spider" has also been a victim of lascivious rumours and male predation.</p>.<p>The film suggests there was little official pressure to catch the murderer, who ends up a hero among the religious right.</p>.<p>"This film is about women, it's about their bodies, it's a movie full of faces, hair, hands, feet, breasts, sex -- everything that is impossible to show in Iran," Ebrahimi said.</p>.<p>"Thank you, Ali Abbasi for being so crazy and so generous and for directing against all odds this powerful thing."</p>.<p>Cinema, she added, has "practically saved my life".</p>