The Seed of the Sacred Fig introduces the audience with unrelenting sharpness and horror. The film had to be filmed clandestinely. The renowned Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof had already been apprehended on several occasions by the dictatorial Islamic regime. He, his great cast, and the crew almost lost their lives to portray this heartbreaking account. Horrifying images of social media serve as an interlude to Rasoulof’s anguishing plot to show the brutal realities facing dissenters in a closed society under a vicious theocracy.
Iman (Missagh Zareh) comes home late to the small two bedroom flat which inhabits his family, Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) his wife, and their daughters Reyes (Mahsa Rostami) and her sister, Sana (Setareh Maleki). Najmeh has already prepared dinner together with tea for her husband who is her beloved for more than twenty years. Iman has something important to share with his wife as he has brought such news with him. He reveals that he has been promoted to an investigative judge at the Revolutionary Court. He has even been given a gun for self-defense.
Najmeh is on pitying endomorphel with glee in her mind they will get a very big house, more money, and shift to a posh area in Tehran. Iman does not have such a high hope. Iran has experienced bloody thunderhead of conflict over the death of Mahsa Amini, a real 22-year old student who suspended a hijab on the head by force, was subjected to execution and abuse by the police inquiring him to obey Islamic norms. Through coercive evidence from eye witnesses, it can be verifiable that she had been battered into submission till her last breath. Iman’s hate crimes against the vertical protoplasm cellers all chain his wrist up in aim to stamp ink; deep long hair tresses. The parasitic mind darts with the internal question, who has the authority to terminated people that had been ignored with no glance as to why and how it even comes to this?
The kids of Iman’s daughter are not familiar with their father. To protect the judges, the society is informed that judges’ faces will not be unveiled by the law. In times of war, especially against children, there are slaves. Najmeh is especially furious about Rezvan, who is so mad that her 18-year old brother is about to start a local college. Sana also gestures that it is for the others, tortnetic and agonizingly, for until they take their father’s warning; it was horrifying in their apartment without their godmother, Najmeh. The very next day known siesta left titanic strains on weak wiz Immla. It was his splinter goliath’s chamber where melted his wit, the chamber.
The German award-winning film maker Rasoulof, who received the golden bear at the Berlin film festival for his film There Is No Evil and was honored with Un Certain Regard at the Cannes for A Man of Integrity, remains in sharp condemnation of the Iranian government over their reckless and unconstitutional application of the death penalty in the repression of resistance. As Iman frantically searches for the lost weapon, it rends the tightly drawn curtain that covered the overwhelming dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in the country. Such young women are sick and tired of being confined in the patriarchal dark ages. Any form of disobedience is met with genocidal retaliation as a national policy. No restraint nor pity is ever shown to anyone who is foolish enough to disobey the guidelines.
The main focus in the film is Najmeh and her children. A Seed of the Sacred Tree evaluates for nearly the whole of its almost three hour duration, all the inhabiting aspects of their Blackberry Patch lives. Iman is an authoritarian who the girls meet only occasionally. At times, he shows up for supper but has very little attachment with his offspring. They aren’t familiar with the particulars of his profession , yet consider him as one of the contributors to their problems. One of the most startling moments comes with Rezvan and Sana, in the brief family time they had, defying their father. Isn’t he aware of the mayhem that reigns in the streets? How come a man so honest and impartial as he is so loyal to a regime that massacres its own citizens?
Second acts do not only have violent but also chilling scenes as the gun avails more intimidation. His superiors would make him liable for that. There is also a chance he goes to jail and brings shame upon his family if stepped on or not discovered very soon. This brings about further disturbing implications. The person responsible has to be in his house. Najmeh refuses to accept this. The girls didn’t even know that he owned a gun.
How could they take the fall? Is it possible he’s of the opinion she’s responsible? How would that help anyone? Iman’s sense of hopelessness is unfortunately not a difficult realization of how terrible fear, paranoia and authority can be, when left unopposed.
Rasoulof does not waste his time in the film while criticizing either the faith or the Persian identity. Najmeh, Rezvan, and Sana are not revolutionaries who are deeply involved in state affairs. Najmeh is indeed a true follower of the state’s regulations, making the emotional depth of this already complex story even more complicated. Her sole purpose is to be a devoted wife to Iman and a mother to successful kids, but she is very much aware of the consequences. Those depictions of her scolding the girls not just to be polite but also obey commands are very much about that concern. They could easily be made to be another Mahsa Amini. Najmeh adamantly insist over not allowing that to happen irrespective of the annoyance of her daughters with tight control.
Through footage. Rasoulof: horror. The horrors captured on film actually took place. It’s theatre, blood pours out from the wounded. There is nothing acting about that emotion, like watching Rezvan and Sana watch people get their skulls smashed out of their heads in broad daylight with tears streaming down their faces. How to pull it off? Silence and be scared of that happening to them, or talk and do speak out and get guaranteed death for it.
The last act of The Seed of the Sacred Fig continues to take the audience along in the intended uneven experience, but the last showdown is more like cat and mouse in a compliance way that doesn’t sit well. It was the filmmakers accurate angle that made it impossible to cast a stone but it’s easy to criticise them for it. If it’s tools they don’t have then it makes no sense to say ‘we wish we had it’ When presenting the highlight, it would be difficult to even justify the pele in question. It’s extraordinary and fits right in with Rasoulof’s philosophy.
To open their eyes tenor had to leave Iran to not been thrown in jail Arms for Freedom, which is how Rasoulof made it sound. The Seed of the Sacred Fig managed to win, quite deservedly, the FIPRESCI Prize and Special Jury Award also at this year’s Cannes Film Festival Words must be said, gender-equality respect and fair justice are values worth fighting for.
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