THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (NYFF 2024) – Review by Diane Carson
A repressive scenario unfolds in Iranian writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig through a microcosm of intolerance and violent retaliation. Anchored in his Teheran family, Iman earns a promotion to investigative judge in the Revolutionary Guard Court, an advancement welcomed by wife Najmeh. Meantime, their teenage daughters Rezvan and Sana become involved, through a schoolmate, in violent protests challenging repressive head coverings. Bureaucratic and interpersonal intimidation, demands for unquestioning compliance, paranoia, and sadistic retaliation all materialize as the metaphor of the sacred fig tree that strangles its host suggests a chilling comparison.
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