‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ review: A blistering story of life under tyranny

Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s films bristle with rage about his country’s tyrannical treatment of its people. Rasoulof’s realist critiques, about themes ranging from state-sponsored assassinations to financial corruption, explore overweening oppression through the unblinking eyes of conscientious Iranians.

Rasoulof’s Oscar-nominated The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a clear-eyed examination of the most recent challenge to the theocratic state’s strictures on women. The 2024 production bears witness to the “Women, Life, Freedom” protest movement that began in 2022 against the mandatory wearing of the hijab in public. The custodial death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the religious moral police for being improperly attired, haunts the fictional female characters in The Seed of the Sacred Fig, as does Rasoulof’s own real-life imprisonment for his dissident views.

Missagh Zareh, who has regularly appeared in Rasoulof’s movies, plays a Tehran lawyer who is appointed as a judge to the Islamic Revolutionary Court. Iman is pleased – greater prestige, a bigger apartment – but is worried enough about his personal safety to start carrying a gun.

Iman’s wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) is excited too with Iman’s elevation, but her attention is diverted by their young daughters Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki). The standoff between state and citizenry following Mahsa Amini’s death has…

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