150 Word Review: 'The Seed Of The Sacred Fig' (2024)
Daddy's girls
Mohammad Rasoulof's political thriller The Seed of the Sacred Fig is set in modern-day Iran and includes terrifying real-life video of the Iranian government's brutal crackdown on student protests from a few years ago. The movie was shot secretly in Tehran, and Rasoulof was forced to flee the country. His movie isn't a political polemic, though. It's a family tragedy about a loyal member of the Iranian regime, an investigative judge played with quiet dignity by Missagh Zareh. His job is dangerous and requires a gun. One day, that gun goes missing, and he suspects his idealistic young daughters, Rezvan and Sana, stole it.
Sohelila Golestani is brilliant as a mother whose loyalty to her children is tested by a society poisoned by paranoia. Mahsa Rostami and Setareh Maleki are exceptional as sisters peering into their iPhones and seeing a world of violence and lies. They wonder: Who is Dad?
My favourite of 2024! And the sheer bravery of making it! May those actors left behind survive their flogging and imprisonment! I ache for them.
I loved the first two thirds of this but wasn't so hot on the last chunk, when it turned into a much more standard (and much less interesting) thriller.