Film Notes

The Seed of the Sacred Fig: Mohammad Rasoulof’s domestic thriller is an elegant warning to the Iranian regime

A tense family unit serves as a microcosm of life under Iran’s authoritarian regime in this genre-inflected drama from exiled director Mohammad Rasoulof.

For many, the droll, often elliptical films of Jafar Panahi emerged as defining works about Iran under theocratic tyranny, but the latest from Panahi’s fellow survivor of persecution, Mohammad Rasoulof, shows the equal power of the starker drama in its story of division and complicity within the country’s privileged classes. Premiering dramatically in Cannes with Rasoulof freshly escaped from his country, The Seed of the Sacred Fig wrenchingly pits an investigating judge and his wife against their two dissenting daughters, who are appalled by brutal crackdowns on protesters.

The parents and teenagers essentially inhabit different worlds that only overlap in their Tehran apartment, the primary setting of the film’s first half. Iman (Misagh Zare), the respectable-looking father, is rising in the ranks of the state judicial department, doing increasingly repressive work that we never see; his wife, Najmeh (Soheila Golestani), dotes upon him, and they savour the prospect of a bigger apartment and other rewards for his loyal service. But their daughters, university-age Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and younger Sana (Setareh Maleki), stay glued to social media videos of government attacks on protesters, shown repeatedly in harrowing clips in mobile phone-vertical shots.

Theirs is still a loving family, with warm memories; in one cosy scene, Mum and her girls groom and chat. But they’re primed for a generational clash, and the mounting dissonance between the young women’s democratic views and the parents’ hold-the-line conservatism becomes a microcosm of the archaic authoritarian regime ignoring its citizens’ will to be free. Rezvan and Sana are finally drawn directly into the turmoil of the latest protests when Rezvan’s friend, Sadaf (Niousha Akhshi), is wounded by a buckshot, and they smuggle her into the apartment for her safety.

In a simpler film, the attack on Sadaf would be the polemical centrepiece: she’s shown in lingering close-up, realistically gory with her eye swollen shut – the face of an innocent victim of violence that any supporter of the regime is condoning. But an equally strong moment comes when Rezvan confronts her father at the dinner table and says, baldly, he’s wrong, and too close to the problem to see it; at the film’s premiere screening, these exchanges sparked applause. “Normal people who want a normal life and freedom” is, in Rezvan’s words, at the root of the protests, not some conspiracy of ill-defined “enemies” that her father flimsily maintains. The teenage rebellion of the moment (which is not without humour) and Rostami’s reasonable tone and timing steer the scene clear of didactic showboating.

Accusations fly back and forth between the daughters and their protective mother, who’d rather that her children had never socialised with the likes of Sadaf but still asks a friend with a high-placed husband to ascertain Sadaf’s whereabouts in custody later. Throughout, Rasoulof is plumbing the individual moral decisions faced by citizens under this regime much as he did in There Is No Evil (2020) and its four stories circling capital punishment. But Sacred Fig proceeds to bust out of the confines of their domestic drama – which is surefootedly staged and fleshed out with telling gestures and glances – with eye-opening developments that express the paranoia engendered by the patriarchal regime and its corrosive effects. 

These genre-inflected turns include questioning of the girls by a friend of the family who works as an interrogator. It’s a creepy sequence that shows Rasoulof’s willingness to break out some severe imagery: Rezvan sits blindfolded against a bare wall, in an unsettlingly bare composition that gives the subjugation of citizen to state a pure, unforgiving shape. There follow some wildly unexpected action-drama flourishes (maybe foreshadowed by the movie’s mysterious opening, in which Iman drives through the night on a mission never fully explained, wielding a gun). Far from entertainment value, these sequences suggest the violent prerogatives Iman assumes as a father and controlling agent of the state when push comes to shove.

“Over there we will become the family we were,” Iman says at one point when explaining a move to the countryside where he grew up. The tortuous phrasing is a concise statement of conservative purpose: family and state returning to some imagined prior perfect form. It’s no wonder that Rasoulof opted to flee the country upon learning that authorities were onto his film production and would soon carry out his pending sentence of imprisonment and flogging. But his film deserves to be regarded on its own terms, as an eloquent record of and warning to a regime clinging to power at the expense of freedom.

Germany's Oscar Entry 2025 The Seed of Evil and Hope.

Cannes winner “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” is shortlisted as Germany’s Oscar submission for Best International Film. The country could not have chosen a better film than the political parable by Iranian exile Mohammad Rasoulof.

In the midst of the political unrest in Tehran following the murder of Mahsa Amini, Judge Iman finds himself confronted with pressure from the regime. Having just been promoted to investigating judge at the revolutionary court, he remains loyal to the state while his daughters are gripped by the protests and his wife desperately tries to keep the family together. When his service gun disappears, he suspects his wife and daughters, starting an investigation in his own home in which all boundaries are crossed.

The intense psychological family drama opens with a quote that explains the political metaphor in the title: “The seeds, in bird droppings, fall on other trees. Roots spring up and grow down to the floor. Then, the branches wrap around the host tree and strangle it. Finally, the sacred fig stands on its own.”

The image of suffocation is reflected in the stifling web of lies, mistrust, and state control, as well as the breakdown of social bonds and human empathy. It is hard not to relate Rasoulof’s parable of repression and resistance to the dynamics of authoritarian systems—both past and present.

The Film Idea Came to Him in Prison

The idea for the thriller arose from an encounter in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where director Mohammad Rasoulof was being held. A guard “pulled me aside and said he wanted to hang himself […]. He suffered from an intense pang of conscience, but did not have the courage to free himself from the hatred for his job. Stories like these convince me that eventually, the women’s movement in Iran will succeed […]. Repressions may temporarily keep the situation under the government’s control, but eventually, like in many instances we’ve seen before, the government will surrender.”

The film's producer, Mani Tilgner, pointed out at the Arab Critics' Award acceptance ceremony that the film had struck a nerve:

Beyond being an outstanding work of storytelling, ensemble acting, and directing, The Seed of the Sacred Fig offers a subtle yet radical look at how individuals surrender to oppressive systems. Critics have called the film courageous, unnerving, and revelatory.

A German Oscar Entry Like No Other

Germany is not short on political Oscar submissions, from Schlöndorff’s winning anti-war film The Tin Drum to Stasi drama The Lives of Others to the four-Oscar success of trench drama All Quiet on the Western Front. Rasoulof’s film is the first to shift perspective and voice away from, and then reflect it back onto, German experiences—including artists’ being forced to leave their homeland: “I had to choose between prison and leaving Iran. With a heavy heart, I chose exile,” the Berlinale winner Rasoulof commented.

He himself has called his film’s Oscar nomination “complicated” and “bittersweet,” acknowledging “mixed feelings.” “I'm delighted Germany saw the international scope of the film and opened its arms. It's a sign to all filmmakers working under duress around the world,” Rasoulof said while touring in the USA after the Oscar submission.

Reacting more bluntly to criticism about an Iran-set Farsi film representing German cinema at the Oscars, Rasoulof counters:

While Iman’s family falls apart on screen, the cast was thrown together in solidarity through the crucible of persecution. Masolouf, who had lived in Germany before, is now in Hamburg, where his daughter lives. Mahsa Rostami and Setareh Maleki, the actresses playing the daughters, are in Berlin.

Iran’s Oscar Entry as a Contrasting Programme

As a bizarre foil, Iran's official Oscar entry is called In The Arms Of The Tree, a drama the regime claims showcases “the beauty of this country” and portrays “the authenticity of the Iranian family.” The Seed of the Sacred Fig, an artistic monument to women fighting for their rights and freedom, would undoubtedly be a powerful, humanistic, and hopeful Oscar winner for any country.

Jutta Brendemühl, Goethe Institute. February 2025.

Jutta Brendemühl is Program Curator for the Goethe-Institut Toronto.

What you thought about The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Film Responses

Collated Response Comments

95 members and guests attended this screening. We received 70 responses delivering a film score of 4.67 and a response ratio of 74%.... which is fabulous…. please keep on telling us what you think of the films chosen.

All of your comments are below.

“I thought this film was excellent and a tribute to the bravery of all involved”.

“More like this please”.

“Shocking portrayal of how paranoia from a regime can tear apart families”.

“In a season that has thus far felt a little lightweight (if thoroughly enjoyable) here is a film of real heft illustrating the ways in which the inbuilt mistrust of totalitarian regimes will gradually suck their operatives into their delusional well of suspicion. Iman is one such whose fundamental decency gradually evaporates. At first this is presented conventionally with a layered family portrait but after his gun, symbol of his position as a man with power of life and death, vanishes the narrative takes a distinct left turn. The film, with bizarre moments of humour amidst the horror, begins to resemble the odder political thrillers of the late 60s and early 70s, echoing Iman's increasing paranoia and culminating in a farcical spaghetti western style finale where Chekhov’s law holds true and he is buried in the nation's ancient dirt by his own weapon. The first part is enormously effective using deeply unsettling iPhone footage. The second part less so but I applaud the imagination to take it somewhere more stylistic and symbolic”.

“Superbly managed tension throughout this long film. The only disappointment was the farcical chasing around deserted ruins at the end”.

“Overly drawn out in parts, the final scene was more like a farce and did not match the emotion of the rest of the film”.

“Good choice of film with quirky ending”.

“An intense film giving an insight into what it's like to live in such regimes. Excellent acting. The inclusion of real videos of rioting and police response was very powerful. The film was probably too long, trying to deal with too many issues. The second part focusing on the father's increasing paranoia took away from the issues of repression and revolution/protest, it was also less believable as his actions became increasingly erratic”.

“A great film. Thoroughly engaging and for the most part absolutely gripping. The last third dragged which meant it ran out of steam a bit for me. But great performances, very convincing and terrific direction/filming, all the more impressive given the circumstances of the film’s creation”.

“Very gripping. I thoroughly enjoyed. The only negative is that felt there was a step missing from how such a loving family could sink so quickly into horror. It also made me think women need to keep fighting to maintain our rights, especially with the rise of populism”.

“An eye-opening film. I thought the acting from the 3 main female characters was incredible. Editing in the genuine scenes of unrest was genuinely unsettling but fabulous”.

“In some ways a distant cousin of ’Parasite’. Beautiful and powerful storytelling, pushing the boundaries of docu-drama. A little long but a modern tale that needs to be told”.

“More like this and there will be 400 members!”

“Bit slow at first. Very thought provoking”.

“Not the film I thought it was going to be and so much better”.

“Excellent, but as Michael said, a tough watch. Very realistic performances”.

“It retained my attention throughout. Brilliant”.

“Brilliant. The metaphor of the gun as the bringer of violence and the crushing of freedom and the father’s corruption from loving to loathing”.

“A very brave and impressive film”.

“Amazing. Thought provoking”. “Just amazing filming”.

“Life under a dictatorship. Brilliantly played”.

“What an amazing film. Start to finish. A tale of oppression, submission, aggression, subservience. How will it end? Such a shocking regime”.

“An incredible film, a hard watch but intriguing and gripping. I didn’t expect that ending”.

“Brilliant, suspenseful, original. It didn’t seem like 167 minutes!”

“Riveting. Didn’t feel like almost 3 hours. The tension building”.

“Corruption of all things – people in a corrupt regime – powerful”.

“A rare insight into another world. So much to take in, but I feel I’m missing a lot of cultural context – would love to understand”.

“Surprisingly gripping”. “Fascinating, gripping, surprising!” “Remarkable”.

“Confirmation of all I know about Iran from an acquaintance who married an Iranian”.

“Powerful and gripping. Shows life in its true form under a repressive regime”.

“Thought that as it was so long id probably leave but I was mesmerised by the filming, politics, actors – all good and thought provoking”.

“Amazing 10/10”. “Surprising stuff”. “Powerful”.

“Devastating family scenario caught up in politics. So sad”.

“So much to thank freedom of speech for!”

“A remarkable and engaging film to be applauded”.

“Amazing he was able to make it in Iran”.

“Very dramatic and thought provoking, if rather too long”.

“Good film – topic hard”.

“Frightening what people have to do to get some freedom”.

“A brave and riveting story of courage against a regime and way of life which still prevails in 21^st Century. Overlong though”.

“Excellent until the final chase which dragged”.

“Overlong. Some bits could have been left out”.

“A film of four quarters. The first ¾ excellent and moving. The last ¼ a bit manic”.

“Powerful stiff!! Extraordinary insight”. “Eye opening”. “Needed a good editor”

“A hard watch but interesting portrayal of Iran and steadfast beliefs. Brilliant acting”.

“Grossly too long”.