This text comprises spoilers for the movie The Seed of the Sacred Fig.
When the movie The Seed of the Sacred Fig begins, an Iranian lawyer named Iman (performed by Missagh Zareh) has simply been promoted to “investigating decide.” The place will get him the next wage, guarantees him an opulent three-bedroom dwelling—and arms him with a gun. Iman’s new function requires him to provide and make sure proof for prosecutors to make use of; that makes him a goal for these convicted by or searching for to sway Iran’s secretive Islamic Revolutionary Courtroom.
Iman intends to do his half properly. At dinner along with his spouse, Najmeh (Soheila Golestani), and their daughters, Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki), he informs the 2 youngsters of the hazards he faces. Rezvan and Sana look apprehensive, however they comply with assist maintain him secure by not discussing his work exterior their dwelling. Iman isn’t simply their father and their household’s breadwinner: He’s their hero too.
Till he’s not. By the tip of the writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof’s movie, in theaters now, Iman has remodeled from the sympathetic patriarch right into a vindictive and terrifying villain. His latent paranoia and rising incapability to separate his work life—the place he’s truly rubber-stamping convictions, not investigating them—from his dwelling life flip him into his household’s very personal autocrat. The Seed of the Sacred Fig itself shape-shifts from a quiet research of a close-knit foursome right into a high-octane thriller. The movie is, consequently, a portrait of how Rasoulof perceives the systematic oppression inside his dwelling nation, from which he’s now exiled. The federal government’s rejection of its residents’ efforts for change is private to him—as devastating and painful, the movie suggests, as having a father flip in opposition to his personal flesh and blood.
Rasoulof, one in every of Iran’s most prolific administrators, has mentioned that he had supposed to proceed working within the nation, regardless of repeated roadblocks and bans on his movies. But spending his profession telling tales about those that take part in state-sponsored violence—together with interrogators, executioners, and torturers—and exposing the regime’s brutality has made him a felony to Iranian officers. In 2010, he was arrested for trying to make a film about demonstrations following the 2009 presidential election; in 2022, he served jail time for signing a petition condemning the federal government’s actions. Rasoulof shot Sacred Fig in secret, watching the set from a distance to keep away from calling consideration to himself or his manufacturing. When he was sentenced to eight years in jail shortly after he completed filming, he determined to flee Iran. He arrived in Germany following a monthlong journey, simply in time to wrap the film earlier than its debut on the Cannes Movie Pageant, the place it received a Particular Jury Award.
The Iranian authorities’s crackdown on dissenters affected Rasoulof’s each step in making Sacred Fig, nevertheless it additionally offered the supply of the movie’s uncooked energy. The story takes place as the Lady, Life, Freedom protests of 2022, which started after a girl died whereas held in police custody for allegedly not carrying a hijab, kick off all through Tehran; unable to stage reenactments within the open, Rasoulof interspersed real-life footage of the demonstrations all through the movie. Iman dismisses his daughters’ issues that the media are censoring this imagery, and the inclusion of genuine recordings emphasizes that he’s denying actuality—each his and the viewers’ personal. His refusal to take his daughters severely—which stems from his steadfast dedication to his personal beliefs—leads them to distrust him in flip, making a grim, seemingly unbreakable cycle.
The movie takes a heart-wrenching flip when Iman can not discover the gun he’d been given, and he begins to suspect his kids of stealing it. Rasoulof had rigorously portrayed him as a loyal household man: He prays with Najmeh every morning. When he drives his daughters dwelling, they go to sleep within the again seat. Rezvan and Sana watch dwelling movies of him for consolation. His spouse and daughters subsequently discover it unthinkable that Iman may very well be so devoted to his work—work they see as immoral—that he’d select to consider the regime over them. Viewers might battle to just accept this too, particularly greater than an hour into the movie; scenes of Iman taking them to an interrogator, ordering them to admit to stealing his gun on digicam, and locking them into separate rooms might be particularly uncomfortable to look at.
By the point Iman begins chasing his spouse and daughters round an deserted village whereas brandishing a gun, his conduct is not stunning. The movie’s tonal shift, nevertheless, caught me off guard. The pursuit sequence appears preposterous at first; it resembles a Hollywood Western a few bounty hunter stalking his prize, not the intimate household drama that was taking part in out only some scenes earlier. But the change helps Sacred Fig set up Iman because the household’s private demon, somebody past saving. The staging—characters dart into hiding spots and leap throughout rooftops—conveys simply how menacing Iman has turn out to be, and simply how terrified the ladies are of somebody they thought they knew. Rasoulof then ends the movie with extra footage of the 2022 protests. These clips stand in sharp distinction with the heightened moments that got here proper earlier than them, capturing the surreality of the nation’s turmoil. The emotional actuality of dwelling in Iran whereas holding views that oppose the state, the film suggests, is anxiety-inducing—nearly unfathomably so for many who have by no means handled such restrictions.
Iman is an efficient man, however even a very good man might be hopelessly corrupted. He believes that his nation has his greatest pursuits at coronary heart and that his actions are literally defending these round him. His household’s resistance simply intensifies his dedication to make them obey him, even on the expense of their affection. But by denying them their humanity and the chance to develop their very own beliefs, he turns into a stark illustration of the insecurity and worry that fortifies the regime he serves. “In my own residence, I don’t really feel secure,” Iman complains after he misplaces his gun. He’s not the one one.