THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG Movie Review | Mohammad Rasoulof | Iran | Oscars 2025
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- Опубликовано: 4 фев 2025
- The gripping Iranian thriller "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" is the latest in our reviews of this year's Oscar-nominated international features. In telling the story of a family caught up in the recent political unrest in Tehran, writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof shot entirely in secret. Starring Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh, Mahsa Rostami and Setareh Maleki. In theaters and streaming now.
#theseedofhtesacredfig #mohammadrasoulof #oscars2025
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That scene where the mother is removing the bullet debris from the face of her daughter's friend is one of the most powerful things I've ever seen on film. It's why this made my top ten list.
This is the kind of film that deserves attention from film critics. It can benefit from great reviews like this one. Thank you for Art-House Tuesdays!
Our pleasure!
I also finally caught up with The Seed of the Sacred Fig last week after hearing so many fantastic things and boy this film did not disappoint. Despite its long runtime I never felt like a second of it dragged and there’s not a single scene I would cut- every single scene felt necessary and important to the plot. I also loved the dynamic between Najmeh and her daughters. And the final shot of the film? Chef’s kiss. So glad you guys gave Mr. Rasoulof the directors award, I wish more groups would have followed your lead. Fantastic review as always!!
This is my personal favorite of the international feature nominees since I first saw it at NYFF. It absolutely blew me away, and I was happy to give Rasoulof the standing ovation that he deserved afterwards. I rarely see movies twice in theaters nowadays, but I just really wanted to support this movie. I wish Seed of the Sacred Fig got more love at the Oscars, especially director, but it at least received the international feature nomination.
Yesssssss so happy you’re reviewing this. One of the top 5 of the year for sure. Great review 🎉
Thanks friend! We miss seeing you at Lunch Date.
It’s fantastic!!!
@@BreakfastAllDay I’m gonna try and make the next one!
It was almost 3hrs long????😮 Truly it did not feel like it at all!! Yes Rasoulof manages to gradually build the tension and suspense in a way that is not at all heavy-handed and really keeps you guessing right to the very end!! When Rasoulof presented his film at Cannes, he had just fled Iran having been sentenced to flogging and 8 years of prison, and while on the red carpet he showed photos of 2 of his lead actors (who played the parents) who were unable to leave Iran to attend the premiere. Those actors are still under travel bans in Iran and are facing accusations of propaganda against the Iranian regime and promoting immorality for their roles in the film. The actors playing the 3 daughters all fled Iran also.
This is - by the way - the German competitor for the Academy Awards, not the Iranian.
Got it, thanks Nalini!
Watched this over the weekend and thought it was fantastic as well!
So glad you saw this!
I hope you also review 'All We Imagine as Light' 🙏🏽
yay, really curious about this one. Thanks Christy & Alonso. Unfortunately, where I now live we only get mainstream stuff, so will have to wait till it streams.
Among many things, what struck me most in this movie was the death penalty segment. Essentially, that’s a father’s job-signing final solutions. In that sense, The Seed of Sacred Fig serves as a continuation of Rasoulof's previous feature, There Is No Evil (2020), where he explores individual and moral responsibility within larger, socially constructed systems (the theme is also the death penalty). I will never forget how that movie caught me off guard right from the start-hands down, one of the most shocking movie openings ever. The nonchalance, the ordinariness of life within a larger, corrupt system is chilling in the most horrific way imaginable.
Both movies, figuratively speaking, can be seen as film adaptations of Hannah Arendt's brilliant book, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, which tackles similar themes. Eichmann's main defence was that he was merely fulfilling his duty within the system. Following that logic, we get the term "banality of evil," as it erases individual responsibility. The catch, as Slavoj Žižek beautifully put it in one of his lectures, is that everyone is responsible even for their duties themselves. Thus, like Eichmann, our main protagonist cannot be absolved of their guilt. The collision of banality and everyday ordinariness (warm family intimacy) with monstrous societal systems (cold, faceless estrangement) is jaw-dropping.
All in all, this is unquestionably the best movie of the year. As always, great review, guys. Love you!
Just saw this tonight with a movie group at a theater that shows arthouse & international films. Really enjoyed it. Very interesting story!
I've been watching my way through the nominees and so far this one's my favorite, Soheila and Rasoulof deserved more love.
Interesting back story to the movie getting made, kudos to him for having the guts to make it.
I really loved the first two-thirds of this but the last act put me off and I was impatient for it to end.
I was impatient for it to end much earlier. Rasolouf was treated as a Messiah in Cannes.
Did Alonso watch the film at Cannes as well?
Where is that video of breakfast All day awards?
Taco Tuesday and Art House Tuesday sounds like a good weekly tradition.
Will look for this online. In other Iran related shows, the Israeli/Apple TV show Tehran's season 3 has been shot
and is in the can, its release postponed by 10/7, Gaza issues. Apple should just release it before
people lose interest.
My favorite breakfast is served on Tuesdays! 🥞
Ha ha, we'd never let you down.
I loved this, I really like that he took the time to actually show what this normal family does in a normal day, the daughters have friends, and they go to school, the go buy uniforms, I think that totally works in favour of the third act, and also just gives us another perspective, so many of these movies that crossover to America from the middle east are very overtly about the totalitarian regimes (and rightfully so), but this one actually starts of very cotidian. And I gotta say the specific choice he makes of what to do with Chekov's gun in the end I thought was brilliant and all the more powerful if he had done the more conventional choice.
This was my 4th of the foreign films and for a few days it was my fave until I saw The Girl with the Needle. I loved the dad...until I didn't. I was thinking about the hood mount camera too while watching it. Would the actors all be in danger like the director? The film did return in SF for one showing a day this week at the Metreon. It had previously played a week but I was away for the holidays.
No review of Dogman?
If you both were Academy members wich would be your choice in best internacional pick?🎉
With all though respect to Alonso, Iran is not a dictatorship. Yes it is a religious authoritarian system, but they still have free elections. For example they elected Mesud Pezeskiyan in 2024, a supporter of womens rghts in Iran, who declared headscarf laws are unjust and they wont be enforced.
Speaking as an Iranian, born and raised in the country, Iran is absolutely a dictatorship. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you've been given very wrong information about the situation in Iran. But I feel the need to address your comment because what you've written is not only outright false, it's dangerous.
People have been killed in the hundreds just from 2021 and the start of the Mahsa Amini protest, simply for standing up for their rights and demanding the most basic freedoms. The regime murders, imprisons and tortures anyway who even slightly speaks up or critics the regime and has done so for the entirety of its exitance.
There are 'elections' yes but only nominally, in the end the person winning is who the supreme leader wants to win. and I assure you no politicians, no one with any position of power within the Islamic Republic, is a supporter of women rights. They may pretend to and put up a progressive façade but that's all it is. They're part of the same oppressive system and their goal is always to preserve it and their own power. Pezeshkian is as bad as anyone of them. And the hijab laws won't ever change while this regime stands. Those laws have been the regime's primary tool of the oppression and control of women.
@@TheTWK70 I am also a fellow Western Asian (I dont like to give my info on internet but I can say we are neighbors)and I am well aware of the terrible human rights violations in Iran and the power of Hamaney and the Guardian Council over the goverment. But still I have high hopes for Pezeşkiyan. He seems genuine in his views and he represents a major paradigm shift in Iran.
This is my favorite of the year (80 films seen)
You are dedicated!
Are you kidding? "Not heavy-handed"? He went from a man with integrity not wanting to sentence a case he didn't know the details of to a crazy man like the Shining trying to hunt down his family. Totally cartoonish unraveling.
ugh... the blue hair destroying her father...the first hour was tense and I thought the message needed to be told and was important...but then I just kept getting mad at what was going on...that I almost didn't care about the message anymore...(but I do give it points for the definition of the title at the beginning...as the destruction by a parasite was a given)
Better than Sonic the Hedgehog?
Yeah I gave this 2 1/2 stars on my letterboxd. It wasn’t for me. It was way too long and could have been shorter. The film mid way turns for a social commentary film into a family thriller. There Also are some character choices in the final 20 mins that totally didn’t make sense. This didn’t work. BUT the director is very good and I enjoyed the cinematography…. 🤷🏾