The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Gun and Done

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof (Iron Island, The White Meadows, There Is No Evil) has made a film, in secret, that raised the ire of the Iranian authorities, and necessitated his fleeing to Germany. The Seed of the Sacred Fig concerns Iman (Missagh Zareh), a lawyer who is promoted to judge. This is a huge step up and it will allow his wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) and their family to graduate from their cramped living quarters to something much bigger. Their teen daughters Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki) are currently sharing a room. Iman discovers that the new job is not what it's cracked up to be. He's meant to sign off on cases without even reading them over, and this includes death penalties. He's assigned a gun, and his family are urged to stay off of social media and watch who they're spending time with. A friend of the girls, Sadaf (Niousha Akhshi) is shot in the face during the protest, and the girls take her in to provide first aid. Before long, things have escalated, Iman's gun has disappeared, and he decides to take his family to his mountain childhood home. There, things spin seriously out of control. It's impressive to consider how much ground Rasoulof has covered with so little, so few locations, and so few actors. The film runs 168 minutes, but it's a slow burn, ripping into political hypocrisy, sexual hypocrisy, and violence as a response to oppression and inequality. It's a revolutionary work.