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The Seed of the Sacred Fig: Inside the Iranian film that a brave cast and crew risked everything for

Director Mohammad Rasoulof made his new film in secret in defiance of the Iranian authorities

The Seed of the Sacred Fig isn’t just a stealthy thriller about a Tehran family ripped apart by ideological differences. It’s also a remarkable act of bravery from director Mohammad Rasoulof, his cast and crew. Since Rasoulof completed his blistering film, which is up for a Bafta and an Academy Award, all but one of them have fled Iran. 

Rasoulof, 52, a prolific director whose previous features have won prizes at the Berlin and Cannes film festivals, made The Seed of the Sacred Fig in secret from a remote location. He called the shots over FaceTime while two assistants acted as his proxies. That way, if Iranian authorities raided the set – a very real possibility given that Rasoulof has twice served jail time because of projects criticising the totalitarian regime – they wouldn’t find him there. 

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And he wasn’t just being over-cautious. Last May, two weeks before The Seed of the Sacred Fig premiered at Cannes, Masoulof was sentenced to eight years in prison, flogging, a fine and the confiscation of property. His lawyer wrote on X that the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Iran deemed Rasoulof’s films and statements “an instance of association and collusion with the intention of committing a crime against national security”.

By this point, Rasoulof had already fled to Germany, where he finished editing the film that is now bringing Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom movement to greater international attention. Actress Mahsa Rostami, who plays a Gen Z woman caught between obedience to her father and the collective push for women’s rights, says it’s “an amazing opportunity for me to express my anger and the anger of so many others”.

The film unfolds during the 2022-2023 protests against Iran’s staunch authoritarian government, which were sparked by the death in police custody of a 22-year-old woman called Mahsa Amini. She had been arrested for failing to wear her hijab properly in public: a brave display of dissidence. Masoulof weaves in real-life social media footage from the protests, which show the police in a less flattering light than deferential TV news bulletins, but his film centres on a fictional family in crisis. 

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Father Iman (Missagh Zareh) has recently been appointed as an investigating judge in the Islamic Revolutionary Court – a shadowy institution that tries supposed opponents of the regime. In real life, it has issued numerous judgments against Masoulof including those that led to his two prison stints totalling 11 months. Iman’s new role comes with more money and status but also greater risk. Because he’s expected to approve death sentences without assessing the evidence, he’s issued with a handgun to protect his family.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig director Mohammad Rasoulof

When the gun goes missing, Iman suspects his daughters, 21-year-old Rezvan (Rostami) and teenager Sana (Setareh Maleki), who are beginning to question the system he works for. His wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) is torn between loyalty to her husband, who runs the household with a firm patriarchal grip, and the daughters she adores but doesn’t always understand.

“It’s a family where tradition and patriarchy play a big role – there’s a lot of control from the father,” Rasoulof says when we meet at a London hotel. His answers are translated from Farsi by an interpreter sitting next to him, but his animated presence makes the three-way exchange less awkward. “And yet you have the younger generation, the daughters, who don’t want to ignore their father’s role in what is happening more widely in society.”

Masoulof insists the narrative isn’t “didactic” but accepts that the family unit becomes symbolic of the cracks in Iran’s totalitarian regime. It is “constructed in such a way that this emerges organically – it speaks of a wider truth, but it isn’t as overt as ‘here’s a metaphor’,” he says. It would be a shame to spoil the harrowing final act, but Masoulof doesn’t defy the ‘Chekhov’s Gun’ principle: at a certain point someone will pull the trigger. 

The film premiered to a 13-minute standing ovation at Cannes in May. Two months later, it was chosen as Germany’s submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the Academy Awards. It secured an Oscar nomination last month. 

Crew and cast at Cannes, 25 May 2024 (from left) Amin Sadraei, Rozita Hendijanian, Niousha Akhshi, Mohammad Rasoulof, Setareh Maleki, Mahsa Rostami, Amineh Arani, Mani Tilgner and Jean-Christophe Simon

“You know, I came to Germany after making this film without Iranian travel documents,” he says (the authorities confiscated his passport in 2017 so his journey out of the country was a treacherous one, on foot, across tough mountainous terrain). 

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“I travel with German travel documents [now], so my film’s like me,” he continues. “Maybe Germany managed to successfully modify the meaning of borders.”

Like nearly everyone involved in the film, actress Mahsa Rostami has also fled her homeland. Speaking over Zoom from Germany using a translator, she says she entered the project “completely aware of the risks” and even kept it secret from her parents. Once she knew the film was finished and ready for release – never a given because footage had to be snuck out of Iran for editing – she decided to leave.

Only Soheila Golestani, who plays the film’s conflicted matriarch Najmeh, remains in Iran. “She’s been subjected to countless interrogations and banned from working and leaving the country,” Masalouf says. But at the same time, he says pressure applied to the actress has been “periodical” because of several “bizarre” political developments at home, including the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a May 2024 helicopter crash.

“The regime seems to be worried about greater issues,” he says. “Everyone involved in the film has been charged with propaganda against the Islamic Republic [of Iran] and spreading corruption and prostitution. But I think the regime is waiting for the outcome of the Academy Awards before pronouncing the judgment, because they don’t want to attract major international news attention.” 

The Oscars ceremony takes place on 2 March. On 16 February, Masoulof will learn whether The Seed of the Sacred Fig has won the Bafta for Best Film Not in the English Language. He says he finds it “difficult to accept” that “films with totally different stories” can be pitted against each other, but adds graciously: “This comparison leads to discussion, and I think discussion is a good thing.”

Some of the discussion has already surprised him. “An Israeli journalist wrote that the characters may wear Iranian clothes, but they also represent Israeli society,” Masoulof says. “And in Spain, people told me that this story feels very connected to their own recent historical experiences.” 

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For Rostami, this film is important because it “represents so many young people in Iran at the moment who are continuing to protest” against the authoritarian regime. She believes we can all learn from the bravery of its female characters. 

“They show that it’s possible to become more aware of political movements, even if you become aware through social media like my character and her sister,” she says. “They learn to fight for their rights and take risks, and they manage to take their mother with them. I think that’s an extremely inspiring message.”

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is in cinemas now. 

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