The Seed of the Sacred Fig

The film was shot in secret, and its director had to leave the country as soon as it wrapped. Mohammad Rasoulof's lawyer announced that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court had sentenced him to eight years in prison plus flogging, a fine and confiscation of property, over his earlier films and activism. Rasoulof chose to flee, walking for twenty-eight days through mountainous border country to reach Germany, and announced his escape on 12 May 2024. On the Cannes red carpet he held up photographs of two of his actors, Soheila Golestani and Misagh Zare, who had been placed under travel bans. The film took the Special Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI award. The story: Iman is promoted to investigating judge on Tehran's high court, and his state-issued gun goes missing. His daughters are watching the women-led student protests on their phones. He opens an investigation into his own household, then into his own family. Who it is for: viewers who want to see how a regime's coercion reproduces itself at the smallest scale, around a kitchen table. Who it is not for: anyone wanting something short. It runs a hundred and sixty-eight minutes, and the last section changes genre and slides into thriller.