Justin Change reviews “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” directed by Mohammad Rasoulof, about how contemporary social unrest threatens to tear an Iranian family apart.
Rasoulof doesn’t just lay out a premise in these early scenes; he presents the family as a rigidly hierarchical and compartmentalized unit. Iman, walled off by work, is a largely absent authoritarian; Najmeh nervously acts as a conduit, passing along vague information from husband to children. As for Rezvan and Sana, their wary glances signal their growing exasperation with their parents’ rules, which are only about to intensify.
Mine weren’t the only tears shed at that Cannes première; for some, the crying began before the movie did. Watching Rasoulof ascend the festival’s red-carpeted steps, it was surreal to recall that he had been on the run a mere two weeks earlier, having fled his country to avoid an eight-year prison sentence.
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