The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Iran : Mohammad Rasoulof : 2024 : 2h 48m)

On the 13^th of September 2022 Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish Iranian student, was arrested and taken into custody for improperly wearing her hijab. Severely beaten, she died three days later as a result of police brutality. Amini's death ignited the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, which demanded the end of discrimination and oppression against women. The protests, the largest ones in Iran since 2009, were harshly repressed by the government. Almost two hundred people were killed, thousands of others went into exile.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig explores how these events affect an Iranian family and uses the microcosm of this Tehrani family to understand wider tensions in Iranian society. The father, Iman, is a government employee who has recently been promoted to the role of “investigator”, a step towards his ultimate aim of being a judge in an Islamic court. Meanwhile, his two teenage daughters, college student Rezvan and schoolgirl Sana, side with the protesters. Their mother, Najmeh, is torn between her duty to and love for her husband and her will to protect her girls.  The film ends with footage captured on mobile phones depicting women proudly protesting on the streets of Tehran.

 The film received, among many accolades, the Prix Spécial du Jury at the Cannes Festival, and was nominated for the Best International Feature Oscar in Hollywood. Shot entirely in secret, Mohammad Rasoulof after the release of the movie had to leave his country after being charged with "collusion against national security".