Russian authorities have suspended the release of an award-winning film about a serial killer who targets sex workers in Iran, a distributor said on Tuesday.


“Holy Spider”, directed by Danish-Iranian Ali Abbasi, was inspired by a true story about a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war who killed 16 sex workers in the early 2000s in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city and a main shrine city of Shiite Islam.


The move comes as Russia and Iran are seeking to tighten ties amid Moscow’s growing isolation in the West over its offensive in Ukraine.

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Russia has become increasingly conservative since President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022.


The film hit big screens in Russia on May 11 but less than a week later the culture ministry withdrew the film’s distribution license.


“Unfortunately, that’s true,” Anastasiya Kruglyakova, a representative of Exponenta Film, told AFP in written comments.


The culture ministry did not provide an immediate response or comment regarding the cancellation, as Kruglyakova refrained from offering additional details. The ministry stated that the release was called off "due to the inclusion of materials in the mentioned film that contain information prohibited by the legislation of the Russian Federation."


Abbasi was denied permission to film in Iran and “Holy Spider” was eventually shot in Jordan.


Last year, Zar Amir Ebrahimi won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in “Holy Spider” as a journalist who investigates the murders.


Iran protested to France after the Cannes film festival selected the film, slamming the move as “wrong and completely political.”