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The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a film that was mostly made in secret, away from the government, stating the words up front, “When there is no way, a way must be made”, given that director Mohammed Rasoulof had to leave his own country, or face torture and prison.
The premise centres around Iman (Missagh Zareh), who is fastidious in his job as a lawyer, but gets a promotion as not quite a judge, but an investigating judge, at the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. It’ll come with more money, and supposedly a larger place to live for him and his family, but that seems to be a long time coming.
In the new career, it’s the done thing to cut corners. This includes just signing off on a death sentence, without questioning it or looking into it properly. As you’d expect, that doesn’t sit right with him, although the previous guy in the job got sacked for simply not going along with it. That said, the instruction comes direct from the prosecutor’s order, so it’s not like you’d have to carry the can if things weren’t on the level, surely?
He’s also given a gun in his new position, since once you reach that level of responsibility in Tehran, life can get dangerous.
That danger is also highlighted when daughter Rezvan’s (Mahsa Rostami) friend, Sadaf (Niousha Akhshi), gets amongst a riot against the govt, ending up brutally attacked with buckshot involved, this segment being based upon the real-life case of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who allegedly violated the law by refusing to wear her hijab in public, and was murdered by the government.
That aspect of the film actually makes for an engaging part of the plot. Unfortunately, then, it derails when Iman’s gun goes missing, rather like what happened with my Firestick, although this is rather more important. Such a situation can lead to his status falling by his employer (you don’t say!)
Suspecting his family, he gets colleague Alireza to interrogates them, but… (well, I’ll put this part behind a spoiler header)
As for how this situation plays out, it takes up the entire second half of an overlong movie, and is as well-structured as “Who Shot Mr Burns?”(!)
And when it comes to who took it, I’ll save you the trouble and tell you here…
Seriously, additionally, his wife, Najmeh (Soheila Golestani), believes everything the TV news tells her, and that whatever happens is “God’s law”. Oh, come on; don’t be so dense. She also asks a friend to check their workplace’s database for something. At best, that’d get you fired! Who’s risk their own job?! Or perhaps in Tehran, their life!
And then came something that pissed me off on an audience-level. If you book a seat, damn well stick to it! Just as the film was about to begin, two idiots came and sat almost right behind me, albeit one seat slightly to the left. Even still, in a room where there were just ten customers, and in discreetly checking my phone at another lull in the film (I don’t like doing this while a film is on, but needs must when the devil drives), I worked out they should’ve sat about 2-3 rows further back… and then it took me a while to work out that one of them was sniffling a cold, as opposed to occasionally giggling at a film that wasn’t a comedy.
Still, either bring a hankie with you, or stay home until you’re better!
NOTE: There are no mid- or post-credit scenes.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 168 minutes
Release date: February 7th 2025
Studio: Neon
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Rating: 5/10
Director: Mohammad Rasoulof
Producers: Rozita Hendijanian, Mohammad Rasoulof, Amin Sadraei, Jean-Christophe Simon, Mani Tilgner
Screenplay: Mohammad Rasoulof
Music: Karzan Mahmood
Cast:
Iman: Missagh Zareh
Najmeh: Soheila Golestani
Sana: Setareh Maleki
Rezvan: Mahsa Rostami
Sadaf: Niousha Akhshi
Ghaderi: Reza Akhlaghirad
Fatemeh: Shiva Ordooie
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.