Much like 2019’s breakout hit Parasite, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a twisty-turny film that ends up in a completely different place than it started. Focusing on Iranian politics held at arm’s length, initially, it’s not long before civil unrest invades the home of our protagonists. Spoiler alert: The patriarchy is coming from inside the house.
Director Mohammad Rasoulof anchors The Seed of the Sacred Fig’s fictional narrative between pieces of real 2022 protest footage captured on social media after Mahsa Amini died in Iranian police custody for refusing to wear a hijab. The film is a clear damnation of Iran’s government, which earned Rasoulef an 8-year prison sentence, infused with a bit of hope for generations to come.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig’s script is a series of nesting dolls. Initially, we’re exposed to the social unrest and civil disobedience cropping up around the family of Iman (Missagh Zareh), an investigating judge who has recently been promoted. While Iman’s family celebrates his success, tensions escalate in their neighborhood as the police inflict violence on protestors. When Iman’s gun goes missing, the plot pivots to the internal dynamics of the family: was it lost, or stolen? And who can each family member trust?
A long film with a slow burn, the first two hours of The Seed of the Sacred Fig fires on all cylinders. Propelled primarily by the performances of all 3 of its female leads, particularly Setareh Maleki as eldest daughter Rezvan, the film succeeds at building characters that function both as generational standard-bearers as well as fully fleshed out characters. The use of real protest footage interspersed with fictional footage adds to the weight of the film, tugging the mind between reality and fiction as the film’s plot slowly unravels.
What’s most interesting about The Seed of the Sacred Fig is the way it manages to be so specific and so universal at once. Grounding the family and events in historical action lends a real cultural and political insight into the film’s narrative, but the kernel of the story is one that could be understood in almost any culture today. Iman and his wife are far more conservative than their children. Iman struggles to control the beliefs and actions of his daughters, but social media, school, and friends pull the girls in other directions. Both daughters struggle to square their father’s beliefs and profession with their love for him.
The film’s only weak point comes in it’s final 30 minutes, where the need to service the allegory’s narrative eclipses the grounded nature of the family drama up to that point. Things could have ended more successfully if proceedings wrapped up earlier, but regardless of the film’s end point, The Seed of the Sacred Fig succeeds by expertly contextualizing international politics in a universal story.