Film Review

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024) — slightly unwieldy, profoundly courageous protest-thriller

An investigating judge grapples with paranoia amid political unrest in Tehran…

It’s impossible to discuss Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig / دانه‌ی انجیر معابد without acknowledging the long, disturbing, and storied history of Iranian filmmakers coming under authoritarian threat — including mavericks such as Jafar Panahi and Mostafa Aleahmad — which reached another harrowing chapter with Rasoulof’s most recent arrest. Following the announcement in May 2024 that Sacred Fig would be participating in competition at that year’s Cannes Film Festival, the Islamic Republic sentenced him to eight years in prison, whippings, confiscation of his property, and a substantial fine. Immediately, a clamorous uproar erupted from the entire international cinematic community, and Rasoulof eventually fled to a safe house in Germany, evading arrest and attending the Cannes premiere with only a few other fugitive members of the cast and crew to help support Sacred Fig.

As evidenced by the repeated attempts at his arrest by the Iranian government, Rasoulof is no stranger to creating this kind of fierce filmic indictment of the authoritarian rule he escaped from. Those not already familiar with Rasoulof’s name may well recognise him as the Golden Bear-winning filmmaker behind There Is No Evil (2020), an anthology film containing four separate anecdotes about the consequences of the Iranian death penalty; a full-fronted interrogation of who administers it, who is responsible for pulling the trigger, the ripples of devastation it leaves on entire families, and the moral dubiousness of the philosophical arguments that support it. And even before that particular film, Rasoulof has repeatedly been singled out by the Iranian authorities for his creation of “propaganda against the system”. A single look at the ten films he’s offered in his 24-year-long career makes it easy to see exactly how and why he’s repeatedly drawn the ire of one of the most repressive regimes of our current times.