The Seed of the Sacred Fig

A provocative & politically charged drama that also serves as a scathing critique of oppressive rule through the devastating account of a family's unraveling, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is an increasingly incendiary story that takes its time to acquaint us with the family dynamics before seeds of paranoia & mistrust take root in the household and turn the whole thing into a familial nightmare.

Written, co-produced & directed by Mohammad Rasoulof, the main incident that sets the plot into motion takes place over an hour into the picture but in that time, it does familiarise us with the volatile situation & civil unrest taking place outside the house that complicates things a lot more within the household. Rasoulof is patient in his approach and provides ample space for the characters to breathe.

The first half covers the clash in ideology & perspective that unfolds between the ladies of the house over the real-world riots & protests taking place outside their apartment, the footage of which is interspersed within the narrative. The film is expertly shot but the narration is rather clunky and only held together by strong performances from the cast. The runtime is also often felt, and the final act overstays its welcome.

Overall, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a bold, brave & audacious effort from Rasoulof who risks his own life & puts everything on the line to deliver a scorching indictment that's timely & urgent in more ways than one. The slow-burn pace makes the length all the more daunting despite the premise being interesting on paper and the film as a whole needed to be more tightly-knitted to make its powerful message heard with thunderous clarity.

Many of us know about the recent protests in Iran and the tragic death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. The hijab is mandatory in Iran and is enforced by over zealous religious police. Outside of Iran it is hard to understand that something that seems trivial to us is such a big issue.

This film works because it takes us inside a family unit that is impacted by these very issues. It appears to use actual protest footage ( suitably obscured) mixed in along with the fictional actors. This gives it a more urgent edge.

The husband works as an investigator for the regime. One step away from being a judge. He is under severe pressure at work to process huge numbers of religious "crimes" without any due process. He is finding out that the price of his promotion is blind obedience.

He has two daughters. One at high school and the other at university (college.) One of the daughters has a friend who is shot after being in a crowd near a protest. We are told she was an innocent bystander.

The mum of the family is very concerned to protect the family status and reputation which will see them get a bigger apartment to live in. However this won't happen unless all aspects of life are squeaky clean. They can't even tell the daughters what the Dad does because it is a security risk.

In one of the first shots of the movie we see bullets being handed over to the Dad along with a pistol. He is being promoted but needs to be able to protect himself.

What we are seeing is an actual literal Chekhov's Gun in the story. A concept you can look up :)

The pistol disappears from the apartment and the dad must find it or face a possible jail sentence for its loss. This ramps up the tension a few levels and the film then somewhat devolves from then on.

The main impact from the film is to personalise the various political pressures on each member of the family. The best art takes us beyond the headlines to show us what is happening and how that looks and feels in real life.

The story is a fiction but feels like a documentary in many respects. As a film it is a success in helping us to empathise with real people caught up in this kind of terror.

I saw this film at a festival. There were some scenes that were unwatchable and quite emotional.

It is now coming up to the 2 year anniversary of that wave of protests. It wasn't just one person who has died in the protests. Records indicate the number is approaching 500 and the ripple waves of anxiety and stress in families can only be approximated but this film goes a fair way to doing just that.

Probably the most courageous film of the year, and a movie that will hardly fail to bring tears to the eyes of those who watch it. Ideological and religious blindness supplants basic human values. The seed has been planted, and while many lives may still be lost along the way, the new generations will make sure to carry the torch.

What is fictional intertwines with reality in a very organic way, and Rasoulof does another great film, his best to date - with a very interesting touch of a paranoid thriller. Perhaps his last film on Iranian soil? It doesn't matter - the seeds he is planting are everything, and the message will reach its audience.

PS: At a time people are talking of Ariana Grande or Zoe Saldaña winning an Oscar, it's hard not to feel pity for what Hollywood, the Academy, and American audiences in general have become. This film alone features at least two supporting performances far superior. Mahsa Rostami, the star you will be!

The movie "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" is a political thriller centered on Iman, who is searching for a promotion in Tehran's judicial system. As he ascends in his career, he is torn between personal and professional conflicts, facing moral dilemmas within his family amid the upheaval of the 2022-2023 Iran protests.

The movie is captivating for its portrayal of the clash between an archaic, sexist, and oppressive government driven by religious ideals and the freedom of expression, culture, and modern values embraced by the younger generation. This duality extends into the family dynamic, where personal beliefs collide with political pressures, creating a powerful internal conflict.

Director and writer Mohammad Rasoulof delivers an emotional movie by blending real footage of student protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.

Another standout achievement is the title The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which perfectly captures and summarizes the essence of the movie. It's a perfect and beautiful choice that sums up the story beautifully.

Where do I even begin ?.. Words like freedom and dignity are not just mere words but they carry in them the deepest pain and suffering of all of humanity, Pain and suffering that were unawaredly endured for thousands of years through social and all kinds of oppression at the hands of a few oppressors and many a times by the very social norms that the humanity had laid out for itself through the truncated understanding of its own social condition in the larger scheme of collective human existence, how do you even go about freeing yourself from the clutches laid out by the collective oppression that has become your identity and the very means to your existence, how do you even go about waking up the society to the cultural cruelty that it's inflicting on its own cultural freedom and social well-being, The seed of the scared fig is not just a movie about Iran and it's women and their struggle over theocratical oppression to expand the social space for their personal freedom to reach the realms of human dignity and it's social acknowledgement, it's a much deeper study on the conflict that arises between the all empowered state through whatever social dictum and the individual freedom which forms the basis of the creation of the sub-unit called family, the very basis on which societies as such come into existence and seek to thrive in various forms and colours...This movie carries a seed in it that humanity needs to cherish for its own better future ...