Most filmmakers don’t have to make their films in secret, nor risk imprisonment by practising their craft. Yet these are the hurdles Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof overcame to make his 10th film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig.
The political thriller follows Iman (Missagh Zareh), a newly appointed investigating judge in Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court, who finds himself a puppet of the government, and is expected to approve judgements without evidence. When his gun goes missing, his wife and daughters get caught up.
Rasoulof has been imprisoned in Iran multiple times since 2010, accused of creating propaganda. He began shooting The Seed of the Sacred Fig immediately after serving his most recent term, and while waiting to be sentenced on further charges.
“I always had this big fear that I would be arrested because of this impending sentence while making the film,” he tells Broadsheet. “I immediately contacted my lawyers and asked them if I appeal how long would the whole bureaucratic process take? And they said about two months. And luckily with the support of my amazing cast and crew, I did manage to complete the shoot in those two months.”
Making the film was enormously challenging, Rasoulof says, because the crew could be stopped or arrested at any point. That meant Rasoulof even had to direct remotely.
“We decided to work with a very small cast and crew, and with very limited equipment, not more than what you’d use for an average student film,” he says. “So that basically if we were seen shooting, you wouldn’t cotton on to the fact that we’re actually shooting something more than a student film.”
Unsurprisingly, the film deals heavily with the oppressive Iranian regime – in particular its treatment of women. Real-life footage of the 2022–2023 protests in Iran, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, is stitched in.
“For many years I wondered about people working with the Islamic Republic, who are really cogs in this repression machine,” Rasoulof tells Broadsheet. “And I wondered how do they accept to become that? In the many instances in which I was interrogated, investigated, prosecuted in court, I kept wondering, what’s the difference between us? What’s the difference between me and the interrogator who’s blindfolded me, stuck me to a wall and who’s asking me questions from behind?”
Shortly after he finished shooting The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Rasoulof received an eight-year prison sentence he could no longer appeal against, and decided to flee the country. He left all his electronics behind and fled Iran on foot, eventually making it to Germany. The footage was later smuggled to Hamburg for editing and release.
The film premiered at Cannes last year, where it received a special award from the jury and a standing ovation lasting more than 10 minutes. Rasoulof has since had positive responses to The Seed of the Sacred Fig from viewers all over the world. He hopes the film highlights the oppression that Iranians, and in particular Iranian women, face.
“I was very lucky because I had the chance to see and share the film with audiences from many different cultures,” he says. “What struck me is that patriarchy, human rights, women’s rights are the increasing focus of attention.”
The Seed of the Sacred Fig is in cinemas now.
