Cannes 2024 (Competition): The Seed of the Sacred Fig (by Mohammad Rasoulof) | Review
Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof returns to the Croisette. A rather special return, since the mullah regime sentenced him to prison, forcing the director to flee his country. With his latest feature, he delivers a political and feminist thriller that has everything it takes to win the Palme d’Or.
A man of integrity. A courageous director. A prolific artist. Words fail to describe Mohammad Rasoulof, 52. The filmmaker had to flee his country, Iran, over the mountains and complete an incredible journey to get to France, to Cannes, to present his latest film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig. And what a film it is! More like a slap in the face. A gesture as much cinematographic as political. Where others in this competition have shown a great deal of bluster in their attempts to convince the jury, presided over this year by Greta Gerwig, the Persian director deploys his art of storytelling calmly, taking the time – 2 hours and 48 minutes – to establish his narrative.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig proves just how much the family unit can be the receptacle for a society and a power system rotten to the core. Mohammad Rasoulof tells the story of Iman, a newly promoted magistrate who, one day, sees his service weapon disappear in his own home. He quickly becomes paranoid and begins to doubt his own wife and two daughters. Iman no longer feels safe anywhere, while the anger of the people rumbles everywhere (the film is set in 2022, in the midst of the Iranian protest movement, following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini).
If the family unit does not evolve in autarky, it is also itself a vector for the perpetuation of patriarchy. Iman is not only a servant of the regime, he is also a man, aware of his privileges, and not ready to give them up. Faced with his wife and daughters, he can’t be anything but the oppressor, because he doesn’t want to be anything else. Les graines du figuier sauvage has all the makings of a Palme d’Or, a great, committed film that would allow Cannes to rediscover (a little) politics, because cinema is politics!
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