At the end of 1977, very few political watchers would have predicted the end of the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran just 13 months later. Yet the Islamic Revolution of 1979 altered that country’s trajectory and has continued to do so for 45 years. Though cracks have appeared from time to time, particularly large ones in recent years following the morality police’s brutal beating and suspicious death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for not wearing her hijab in public, the Ayatollah’s iron grip on power remains intact. Nevertheless, as one of my political pundit friends likes to say, “when authoritarian regimes fall, they do so with surprising speed” and the overthrow of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad just a few weeks ago must make the Ayatollah and his backers a little worried that their days in power might be coming to an end.

THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG is set against the backdrop of those protests in 2022 when Amini’s death set off a movement of incredibly brave Iranian women to bare their heads in public. Iman (Missagh Zareh) is a devout lawyer who has just been promoted to be an investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. The position comes with a few perks along with more money: He gets a larger apartment, which is good news for his wife, Namjeh (Soheila Golestani) and their two daughters, Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami), who is in college, and Sana (Setareh Maleki), who is in high school. He also gets to carry a gun, which is probably necessary as he’s going to be making a few enemies in his new job. Iman learns very quickly, though, that he wasn’t promoted because of his legal mind or his sense of fairness. He is expected to approve judgments from the prosecutors at face value, without assessing the evidence, and many of these judgments are death sentences for the accused. When a police crackdown at Rezvan’s college leaves her best friend with severe injuries, Rezvan and Sana spirit the young woman into their flat and Namjeh quickly tends to her wounds before sending her away. Around the same time, Iman’s gun disappears from his bedside table. If his superiors should find out, his career will be over and he could go to jail for three years.

Mohammad Rasoulof knows all too well how a fig tree grows from just a simple seed. (If you don’t know, it’s explained in the film’s prologue.) The writer-director had already been arrested a number of times in relation to some of his earlier films and was sent to prison in 2022 before gaining a temporary release in February 2023 due to his ill health. When it was announced that THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG was selected for screening in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, the authorities interrogated many of the film’s cast and crew, banned them from leaving the country, and pressured them to convince Rasoulof to withdraw the film from the festival. When they refused, Rasoulof was sentenced to eight years in prison ostensibly for directing his 2020 film, THERE IS NO EVIL, but everyone knew it was to keep THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG, with its scenes of actual protests in Tehran, away from Western eyes. Before Rasoulof had to report to prison, he and a few of the film’s crew fled the country on foot, finding refuge in a German consulate in a neighbouring country. They were quickly flown to Germany where they reside today.

Like Rasoulof, Iman finds himself in an untenable position but because he believes in the theocracy even with the underhanded tactics it uses to keep the population in line, Iman takes a different approach to solving his problems. Namjeh, however, begins to understand what the government is doing both to her husband and to her family, and it becomes a bridge too far for her to continue crossing. This conflict is probably being played out in families across Iran today, as over 60 percent of the population is under 30 years old and these people are hungry for change. Unlike their parents’ generation, they are active on Instagram, X and YouTube, all of which are banned in the country but can be reached through VPNs, and young people like Rezvan and Sana are well versed in using them to share information that the government would rather hide.

THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG premiered at Cannes at the end of May with Rasoulof and the others in attendance, and the film went on to win the Special Jury Award. The film has since been chosen by Germany as its entry for Best International Feature at next year’s Oscar Awards and just a few days ago it was announced that the film had made it to the shortlist of nominees. There’s no word on when the film will be coming to Hong Kong. I have a feeling it’s being held back for the International Film Festival scheduled for mid-April. Its international rollout has just started so it may be a while before it comes to a cinema near you. When it does, be sure to see it because it’s going to be one of the best films of 2024 that you’re going to see in 2025.

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