“Sacred Fig” Is A Shockingly Brave Political Protest with Real World Consequences
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” is the story of an Iranian interrogator steadily losing his grip on what is just and what isn’t, as protests over excessive cruelty by the Iranian police and government are leading to increased unrest. A littttttle freaky in its familiarity to what’s happening on our side of the globe, which makes “Sacred Fig” a truly universal experience.
But while filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof is definitively on the side against the government, he still takes the time to flesh out his characters, no matter their viewpoints or politics. Whether it’s the aforementioned conservative father, his wife, whose loyalty to him begins to waver, or their two progressive daughters. No one is just a mouthpiece for one side or another. Rasuolof makes everyone human, and because of that the drama is real, and the political struggle of the citizens of his nation all the more potent.
But it might be the off screen story of “Sacred Fig” that, as compelling as the movie is, is even more so, as Rasuolof and his cast and crew willing made an anti-government movie in the very country where said government resides, and saw the punishment for it. The filmmaker and many members of his cast and crew were imprisoned for a month before they were able to escape the country to find asylum in Europe, while some were unable to flee and are still trapped. They had to have known they would face something like this in making the film they made, but the fact that they did it anyway conveys the heart of the film's rebellion stronger than anything.