The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Director Mohammad Rasoulof (There Is No Evil) undertook a daring escape from Iran to present his extraordinarily brave allegorical drama in Cannes, winning the Jury Special Award. Rasoulof was sentenced to eight years in prison and a flogging just prior to fleeing Iran, and his spellbinding and powerful film has at its centre a once tight-knit family devastated by political turmoil. Iman, an investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, grapples with mistrust and paranoia as nationwide political protests intensify and his gun mysteriously disappears. Suspecting the involvement of his wife Najmeh and his daughters Rezvan and Sana, he imposes drastic measures at home, causing tensions to rise. Step by step, social norms and the rules of family life are being suspended. Daringly including real-life footage of the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 – and of the regime’s subsequent brutal and lethal crackdown – The Seed of the Sacred Fig is an urgent and devastating film, and a bold tribute to those who have and continue to resist.