April 2025

THE SEED OF THE SCARED FIG

Director: Mohammed Rasoulof

Starring: Mahsa Rostami, Setareh Maleki, Niousha Akhshi

FILM INFO:  167 mins, Iran 2024, 15A

Showing: 8.45pm Weds 2 April  2025

Iman is a lawyer in Tehran. A recent promotion has seen his family moved to a biggerapartment, but he is now expected to sign off on dubious, evidence -free judgements from the Iranian authorities. Meanwhile, his wife Najmeh and two daughters Rezvan and Sana watch as the city is engulfed by anti-regime protests. Rezvan and Sana’s sympathy with the protesters enrages their father, and tensions within the family intensify when Iman’s handgun goes missing.

Ahead of this film’s Cannes premiere, director Mohammad Rasoulof fled Iran to avoid imprisonment for defying a filmmaking ban. The film itself is essential viewing. Encompassing real footage from the 2022-23 anti-regime protests, this is a fierce, furious and engrossing thriller about resisting authoritarianism.

Festivals:

Cannes Film Festival 2024

Awards:

Winner: Special Award (Prix Spécial)/ FIPRESCI Prize- Cannes Film Festival 2024

Reviews: “An eloquent record of and warning to a regime clinging to power at the expense of freedom.”

-

Nicolas Rapold, Sight & Sound

“The Seed of the Sacred Fig is an anguished cry from the heart of Mohammad Rasoulof...this searing domestic thriller deserves the widest audience possible.”- Ryan Lattanzio, Indiewire