Extraordinary: The Seed of the Sacred Fig reviewed

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is by the Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof and all you need to know is that it is extraordinary. What you don’t need to know, but may like to know, is that Rasoulof, who has already been imprisoned multiple times by the authorities, filmed it clandestinely while directing remotely from an undisclosed location and then had to flee Iran on foot. The journey was extremely complicated and dangerous and took 28 days. You could never accuse Rasoulof of taking filmmaking lightly. But that’s not the bottom line. The bottom line is: it’s enthralling cinema.

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The film follows a family in Tehran. Iman (Missagh Zareh) is the patriarch who has just been appointed an investigating judge in Iran’s revolutionary court. The courthouse has corridors strewn with life-size cutouts of generals and military figures (every frame in this film is fascinating – look out for the mountains the motorways cut through). However, he soon learns his real assignment is to sign off on death sentences without any investigation at all. It plays on his conscience at first but, as he is so concerned about keeping his job and status, he quickly puts all that aside, does what is required, stops questioning. It is dangerous work, so he is given a gun for his protection. It is Iman’s gun and also Chekhov’s gun.

Iman is essentially weak but an authoritarian at home, where he expects to be obeyed by his wife and daughters. His wife, Najmeh (Soheila Golestani), is deeply loyal and submits to her husband in everything. She’s probably far brighter than he is, and would run rings round him given the opportunity, but this is what it means to be a married woman in a misogynistic culture, and she accepts it.