Review: 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig,' made in secret in Iran, captures the corrosive paranoia of life under an authoritarian regime

Someday they’ll make a movie about how writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof made “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” — but it will have to be amazing to be as good as the movie he made, an examination of the corrosive effects of life in a totalitarian state, wrapped in a nail-biter of a suspense film.

The story goes that Rasoulof filmed in his home country, Iran, in secret — because the movie is concerned with the brutality of Iran’s enforcement of so-called “morality laws,” like women wearing head coverings, and the bloody 2022 crackdown on student protests against such laws. The film’s footage was smuggled out of Iran on thumb drives, reassembled in Germany. And Rasoulof himself was arrested for his dissent, sentenced to eight years in prison and a flogging. He managed to escape Iran, and appeared at Cannes two weeks later for his film’s premiere.

And, believe it or not, the story Rasoulof tells in the movie is even more compelling.

Iman (Missagh Zareh) has just landed a job as an investigating judge for Iran’s judiciary, looking into crimes against the state and the country’s strictly religious leadership. His colleague, Ghaderi (Reza Akhlaghirad), warns Iman that his life is going to change radically — because people who lose their cases in court may want to seek revenge against the court investigator. Ghaderi also gives Iman something to protect his family: A handgun.

Iman’s wife, Najmeh (Soheila Golestani), isn’t thrilled about the gun, but she’s elated by Iman’s promotion, and the change in their social status that will come with it. Their teen daughters — Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami), who’s a college student, and Sana (Setareh Maleki), a high-schooler — are less thrilled when Najmeh tells them they’ll have to rein in their social-media profile, because Iman’s new job means more scrutiny on the family.

Iman’s promotion happens just as a wave of student protests consumed Iran in fall of 2022. The catalyst was the death of Mahsa Amini, who died while in police custody — who was arrested for not wearing a hijab properly in public. Witnesses said Amini was beaten by police, something the police denied. According to one human rights group, more than 500 people died as the government cracked down on the protests.

Iman notices the protests only because his workload has increased, and he’s hearing more cases in which people have confessed to crimes — confessions, we later see for ourselves, that were often coerced. Rezvan and Sana experience the protests close up, particularly when they harbor one of Rezvan’s classmates, Sadaf (Niousha Akhshi), who has been wounded by police.

The movie shifts tone and setting, when Iman bundles Najmeh and their daughters into the car, and drive into the country. Iman’s hope of escaping the chaos in Tehran is threatened by his suspicion of his family — which has grown more intense since Iman misplaced his gun.

In “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Rasoulof uses the contours of a paranoid thriller, one that has the audience making fists of tension, to examine how life in Iran’s authoritarian regime — and, by extension, any authoritarian system — has rigged the game against its own people, relying on fear and distrust to do its work of making the people perpetually scared and submissive. It makes for riveting drama, and a timely lesson.

——

‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’

★★★★

Opens Friday, February 7, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated PG-13 for disturbing violent content, bloody images, thematic content, some language and smoking. Running time: 167 minutes; in Persian with subtitles.