“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” details Iranian oppression and violence

A repressive scenario unfolds in Iranian writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof’s "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" through a microcosm of intolerance. Anchored in his Teheran family, Iman earns a promotion to investigative judge in the Revolutionary Guard Court, advancement welcomed by wife Najmeh. Meantime, their teenage daughters Rezvan and Sana become involved, through a schoolmate, in protests challenging required head coverings.

Bureaucratic and interpersonal intimidation, demands for unquestioning compliance, paranoia, and sadistic retaliation all materialize as the metaphor of the sacred fig tree that strangles its host suggests a chilling comparison. Rasoulof metaphorically addresses the Iranian crackdown on women who refuse to wear the hijab, but it casts its net wider, indicting those who cave to pressure, who lose all ethical behavior. Footage of actual political protests confirm the indictment of the overarching authoritarian regime as police violently attack demonstrators. On a more personal level, Iman personifies the bureaucrat who will carry out the government’s inhumane dictates. Fear of the consequences of nonconformity pressures Iman as an investigator to sign death warrants, despite his reservations. Escalating the risk, in his official role, Iman is authorized to carry a gun for protection, and that gun will figure prominently in the devastation visited upon his family.

Rasoulof himself has endured three prison sentences and is forbidden to work in Iran where authorities have sentenced him to a prison term of eight years should he ever return. At the Telluride Film Festival Q&A after the film’s screening and in press notes, Rasoulof explained that “the idea of the film comes from my confrontations with the secret services and cultural entities that enforce censorship in Iran. All the characters in the film were inspired by real people.” For Iman, he says, “I tried to create an exemplary character who typifies the regime.” Focusing, as he further notes, on the psychological aspects, Rasoulof delves into the way “Iran can only stay in power through violence against its own people. In that sense, the gun in my story is a metaphor for power in a wider sense.”

Courageously, Rasoulof  urges all of us, “Don’t be afraid of intimidation and censorship . . . They have no other weapon but terror.” Uncovering the tactics that sustain that world, Rasoulof presents a tyrannical realm of authoritarianism and the toll it takes personally and publicly. Nominated for the Best International Feature Film for this year's Academy Awards, in Farsi with English subtitles, "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" is screening and available now.