OSCARS 2025: The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024)

A lot of filmmakers think of themselves as edgy, dangerous artists that challenge the status quo and shake up the system. We know this is mostly bravado and pretensions, obviously. Director is too privileged a position, film too expensive an enterprise, to actually risk pissing off those in power. If forced to be totally honest, how many filmmakers would say they were willing to go to jail for their work? Not many, probably. Not in America anyway. But in other countries, living under harsher scrutiny? Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has had repeated run-ins with his country's strict, Islamic government. He's been arrested multiple times, his films banned, his passport confiscated, and was convicted of making "propaganda against the system." He was commanded to stop making movies for two years but went ahead with a new project, "The Seed of the Sacred Fig," anyway. 

After the film was accepted into Cannes, Rasoulof was convicted to eight years in prison, had his property seized, and was sentenced to be flogged. He sneaked out of his home country, partially on foot, and is currently living in exile in Germany. It's the kind of crazy story, of an artist actually standing up to his authoritative government and facing serious consequences for it, that shows movie making is an important art form. The Academy likely couldn't pass up a chance to acknowledge such an event and "Seed of the Sacred Fig" was accordingly nominated for Best International Picture. (Officially being the submission from Germany, despite being made entirely in Iran with a wholly Iranian cast and crew.) 

In 2022, a young Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini was arrested for "improperly" wearing her hijab. She was beaten by police and died three days later. The incident prompted protest, rioting, and harsh retaliation from the government, especially against women and minors. These real events set the stage for "The Seed of the Sacred Fig." Iman is the husband of Najmeh and father to two teenage daughters, Rezcan and Sana. He accepts a job as a judge on the Revolutionary Court. Quickly, he learns he was chosen to uncritically convict every case that crosses his desk, essentially hired to sentenced protestors to death. He is given a gun for protection and instructed to live anonymously. His daughters, both of whom are carefully following the protests, bristle under these new restrictions. When his gun disappears, Iman begins to regard his wife and children with suspicion. It is not long before the growing tension in the home boils over into violence. 

My exposure to Iranian cinema has been limited, thus far. What I have seen suggests that a strict formalist visual style and slow pace seems favored, at least by filmmakers on the arthouse side of things. "Seed of the Sacred Fig" certainly fits that description. The film's 168 minute runtime is composed of many pregnant pauses and terse glances, with a limited use of music. Actors are often framed in long held shots, that linger on the conversations and actions being performed. It nudges right up against stuffy, inaccessible artiness. However, the frames are clearly carefully composed. When Namjah meets with a friend in secret, we see military convoys ride over the hill behind them. A slow shot of a badly injured protestor having her face stitched up emphasizes the pain and humiliation she's feeling. The intentionally tight, controlled visuals cause a sense of unease to begin building immediately. Rasoulof and cinematographer Pooyan Aghababaei are clearly doing this on purpose, as the film includes many artistic flourishes. Such as Iman taking a dream-like shower, a painterly frame of the wife in bandages, or a slow-motion shot of bullet casings falling through fingers. The film is shot very intentionally, in order to make the audience feel boxed into this situation too.

This is what makes “Seed of the Sacred Fig” a thriller of sorts. From the beginning, there's this sense that something is going to go wrong. However, Iman is portrayed as a decent enough man, quiet and committed to his belief system. From the moment he's given a degree of power though, he begins to show signs of paranoia. Bringing a gun into the house acts as a corrupting presence, a symbol of the new influence Iman carries. Soon enough, he's arguing with his wife and daughters. He forces them all to be interrogated, which is only the most obvious sign that something has gone very wrong. The comforting space that is suppose to exist between parent and child, daughter and father, is replaced with a fear of being exposed, of secrets coming to the surface. It's not an unfamiliar feeling, of a family gone rotten, but “Seed of the Sacred Fig” stretches it as tightly as possible to create maximum discomfort.

The final act of “Seed of the Sacred Fig” resembles a traditional genre piece more than the proceeding two hours. There is a car chase, fist fights, and gun fire. However, it doesn't feel like an unnatural, Donald Kaufman-esque mutation. Instead, the climax builds on the quieter tension that came before. The quiet unease rises towards outright nervous tension, a confrontation on the road having a jittery quality to it. The movie has earned that last act. Iman insists that a wife and daughter are always subservient to their father. Najmeh believes that a mother's job is to protect her children. Seeing these conditions come into conflict makes for a suitably upsetting conclusion. This is the explanation for the obtuse title, a mythological metaphor explained by the title card that essentially means that what was meant to grow and flourish instead chokes out its home. The family unit dies from its own strangling influence.

It's not hard to figure out what causes this imbalance. Iman believes that power should be kowtowed to. He feels immense guilt about signing so many people, so many young people especially, to death... But he does it anyway. Doing what the state tells him to, complying with power, is part of his belief system. His daughters, meanwhile, believe that authority can be challenged, that there are more important things than following the rules. Maybe Iman is afraid of what will happen to him if he doesn't go along with it all. There's room for that interpretation. However, “Seed of the Sacred Fig” seems to be playing much of the conflict in modern Iran out in microcosm. Some cling to the old ways and the appeal to power that comes with it. Others believe that change is not only possible but a necessary good. The former camp is so entrenched, literally in hundreds of years of tradition, that violent confrontation is the only way it'll happen.

For those with the perception of international cinema as depressing, drawn out, wrought with heavy issues, and inaccessible, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” isn't going to change that. This is perhaps the definition of "eat your vegetables" cinema. However, that isn't to say it isn't extremely well done, thoughtful, and ultimately devastating. I don't know enough about the situation in Iran to know if it'll ever get better. I suspect such change will take a long time. However, it's clear that Mohammad Rasoulof is a talented guy. I respect him standing by his beliefs and making art that speaks to his morals. [8/10]