In Mohammad Rasoulof‘s Cannes Special Award-winning “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” the central figure, Iman (Missagh Zareh), is a lawyer whose appointment to the Revolutionary Court in Tehran creates a fear and paranoia that pits him against his own family. This type of man was one Rasoulof knew well; he’d spent years dealing with Iranian interrogations, prisons, threats, and force. He had to produce “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” in secret, sending footage to Germany to be edited. Rasoulof himself soon followed after receiving an eight-year prison sentence that included a flogging.
Speaking in a recent interview with the Los Angles Times, the Iranian filmmaker described making a film in secret as a similar practice to drug trafficking.
“Of course, we were only smuggling human values,” he said. Adding later of Germany’s support of the film in making it their Oscar submission, Rasoulof said, “They simply chose to listen to the world. It’s a huge gesture of support for all filmmakers who are working under duress.”
Rasoulof acknowledged his own exposure to men like Iman after facing many of them in Iran after the films he’s made.
“In the last 15 years, I’ve had very much to do with interrogators, the censors, the judicial system, and the security apparatus of Iran,” he said. “And I saw commonalities among all of these different people. What they all shared is their submission to power.”
At the premiere of the film at the New York Film Festival, Rasoulof also spoke to IndieWire’s Anne Thompson about how the narrative allowed him to keep their production low key.
“We were lucky having a story about a family whose women were wearing the veil,” said Rasoulof. “And the urban parts of the story allowed us to be on the streets without attracting too much attention. This was quite fortunate for us to be able to shoot outdoors, and we could continue working in the crowded parts of Tehran. We kept getting insulted by people who were passing by thinking we were working for the state media.”
To protect both the production and himself, Rasoulof kept himself away from set at all times.
“Sometimes I was very far away. Sometimes I was closer, but depending on where I was, I wasn’t there,” he told IndieWire. “I was managing this set with the assistance of two of my assistants. One of them was working with the technical crew, and one of them was working with the actors and designers.”
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” is currently playing in theaters from Neon.
