The Iranian city of Mashhad in the early 2000s: A serial killer has murdered several prostitutes, so the young journalist Rahimi (Best Actress in Cannes: Zar Amir Ebrahimi) tries to find out more about the case. She suspects that the sluggish, ongoing investigations are hampered by the religious and political elite. Ali Abbasi’s devastating thriller is based on the real case of Saeed Hanaei, who was executed in 2002 for strangling sixteen women with a hijab between 2000 and 2001. The film is a furious indictment of the misogyny that’s so deeply rooted in Iranian society.