Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof is finally making his way back to the Cannes Film Festival following the controversy surrounding his Un Certain Regard 2023 jury appointment.
Rasoulof was invited to serve on the jury last year but was unable to attend due to Iran’s travel embargo on him. The “There Is No Evil” filmmaker was banned from leaving Iran after being arrested in July 2022 for posting statements criticizing government-sanctioned violence against protesters. Rasoulof was later temporarily released in February 2023 due to ongoing health concerns. He was later pardoned and sentenced to one year of penal servitude and a two-year ban from leaving Iran on the charge of “propaganda against the regime.”
Now, Rasoulof is debuting his latest feature “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” in competition at the festival. While the plot remains under wraps, there is no word on whether Rasoulof will attend the festival. Variety first reported the news.
In addition to “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” fellow international title “The Most Precious of Cargoes” has been added to the Cannes lineup. The animated feature is the first animated title to show in competition in 16 years since Ari Folman’s “Waltz with Bashir” in 2008.
“The Artist” Oscar winner Michel Hazanavicius directs “The Most Precious of Cargoes” which follows a Jewish family that is deported to Auschwitz. On the train to the concentration camp, the family’s father tries to save one of his newborn twins by wrapping him in a package and leaving him in the snow, where he is rescued by a Polish woman.
The voice cast includes the late French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant, Gregory Gadebois, and Dominique Blanc.
The film is co-produced and represented internationally by Studiocanal, and will be released in France November 20. Director Hazanavicius wrote the script with novelist Jean-Claude Grumberg, who penned the story the film is based on. Grumberg also created the drawings, with Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat providing the score.
“The Most Precious of Cargoes” is produced by Patrick Sobelman and Robert Guédiguian at France’s Ex Nihilo, in addition to Florence Gastaud, Riad Sattouf, and writer/director Hazanavicius at Les Compagnons de Cinéma. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are co-producing via their banner Les Films du Fleuve.
See the full Cannes lineup here.
