VENICE FILM FESTIVAL awards 2024

[Chris Knipp]

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Persian: دانه*ی انجیر معابد, romanized: Dane ye Anjir e Maabed; French: Les Graines du figuier sauvage; German: Die Saat des heiligen Feigenbaums)


THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (Mohammad Rasoulof) wasn't aired at Venice, but after Cannes at Locarno, Telluride and Toronto, among other venues. It is an important film just because it exists; the filmmaker escaped after being given an 8-year prison sentence in Iran. It is, and Jordan Mintzer's Cannes review in HOLLYWOOD REPORTER heralds it as "Mohammad Rasoulof’s "powerful indictment of Iranian oppression throiugh the eyes of one unraveling family," whose membres are chronicled in a three-hour drama. I've been reviewing MOHAMMAD RASOULOF'S films since the 2005 IRON ISLAND; also reported on A MAN OF INTEGRITY (2017) and THERE IS NO EVIL (2020). SACRED FIG can get oscar submission because one of the producing cointries, Germany, intends to submit it. It's in the Main Slate of the NYFF. The "sacred fig" in questin is a type of fig that flourishes by spreading over another tree and smothering it: a metaphor for Iran's theocratic state and its citizenry.