“The Seed of the Scared Fig” is the latest from Rasoulof. Rasoulof’s film might seem like a domestic drama but it plays out as a stirring critique of the regime in Iran.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig movie review
Director of Photography: Pooyan Aghababaei
Cast: Misagh Zare, Soheila Golestani, Setareh Maleki, Mahsa Rostami, Niusha Akhshi, Reza Akhlaghirad, Shiva Ordooie, Amineh Mazrouie Arani
Director: Mohammad Rasoulof
Rating: ***1/2
Runtime: 168 min.
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“The Seed of the Scared Fig” is the latest from Rasoulof, amongst the foremost and frequently prosecuted Iranian filmmakers alongside friend Jafar Panahi. It’s a wonder that they are even making films when their films are considered illicit and have to be smuggled out of the country to foreign festivals and art houses to be seen by the world. Their films, indirect indictments of the Islamic system are searing, intense and hard-hitting. This latest film is no different.
This new film by Rasoulof was shot secretly, without official sanction. But near its completion, he was presented with a prison sentence of eight years, with flogging and the beleaguered filmmaker had no option but to seek assylum in a more cinema friendly country.
Rasoulof’s film might seem like a domestic drama but it plays out as a stirring critique of the regime in Iran.
Iman, a newly appointed investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, mistrusting and paranoid, finds his gun has disappeared. As nationwide political protests intensify he suspects the involvement of his wife Najmeh and his daughters Rezvan and Sana, and imposes drastic measures at home to keep them from causing grievous harm to his much coveted dream.
Most of the film’s first half, in fact, focuses on Iman’s family: wife Najmeh (Sohelia Golestani) and teenage daughters Rezvan (Mahsa
Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki). The girls pay little attention to their Dad, and he reciprocates in kind. Mom is the mediating go-between. Iman is a true believer in the values and laws of the Islamic Republic, and the loss of the gun puts his newly minted position in jeopardy.
The gun symbolizes his new place in a brutal hierarchy where he decides on life and death issues without the benefit of any investigation. The advent of the “Woman Life Freedom” movement which swept Iran in September 2022, following the in-custody death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been picked up for wearing her hijab improperly,has integral impact on Iman’s home life and professional duties.
Rasoulof exposes civilian terror through the rest of the film in cell phone video clips of the actual events. We see young people , pursued by the riot police, then there are bodies in the streets and rivulets of blood beside them.
The drama is shored by terrific performances from all of the cast, particularly noteworthy is Sohelia Golestani as Najmeh,her gradual transition from defender of her husband to an ally of her daughter is imminently believable.
Mohammad Rasoulof’s film is a powerful indictment of Iranian Oppression even though the solution given seems rather naive.
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