Les Graines du figuier sauvage

A provocative & politically charged drama that also serves as a scathing critique of oppressive rule through the devastating account of a family's unraveling, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is an increasingly incendiary story that takes its time to acquaint us with the family dynamics before seeds of paranoia & mistrust take root in the household and turn the whole thing into a familial nightmare.

Written, co-produced & directed by Mohammad Rasoulof, the main incident that sets the plot into motion takes place over an hour into the picture but in that time, it does familiarise us with the volatile situation & civil unrest taking place outside the house that complicates things a lot more within the household. Rasoulof is patient in his approach and provides ample space for the characters to breathe.

The first half covers the clash in ideology & perspective that unfolds between the ladies of the house over the real-world riots & protests taking place outside their apartment, the footage of which is interspersed within the narrative. The film is expertly shot but the narration is rather clunky and only held together by strong performances from the cast. The runtime is also often felt, and the final act overstays its welcome.

Overall, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a bold, brave & audacious effort from Rasoulof who risks his own life & puts everything on the line to deliver a scorching indictment that's timely & urgent in more ways than one. The slow-burn pace makes the length all the more daunting despite the premise being interesting on paper and the film as a whole needed to be more tightly-knitted to make its powerful message heard with thunderous clarity.

The seed of the sacred fig is the first relevant, powerful film about the Iranian rebelion that took place in 2022. The Woman, Life, Freedom's movement was born right after the arrest and death of Jina Mahsa Amini, a student that did nothing but remove her veil. The director takes us down to a family of an Iranian judge (working for the State and the Mollah 's regime) who is about to receive a promotion that is supposed to change his life right at the moment the 2022 revolution starts. We spectators somehow live this key period of Iran through the eyes of this middle class family which is about to upgrade its living conditions. We are emerged in their every day life until the gun of the father (the judge) disapears or gets stolen inside their home.

The film features a fantastic script, wonderful actors and images of an unknown Iran. You can see Iran like we can rarely see it, with its modernity, its rich history and ancient monuments, its poverty as well as its drawbacks. Like in many Iranian films, the spectator is plunged into complex situations with ethical questions which oblige to choose between moral, personal values and loyalty to the regime: Shall I wear this veil or another (less provokative one) ? Should I go the university despite of the strikes ? Shoulld I ask a favor to my neighbor and take the risk of revealing my family's problems? The ethical questions are everywehre, and they are direct consequences of the heavy oppressive regime that has ruled Iran for now decades. All these questions are faced with dignity and sense of duty by the characters , with sometimes even loyalty towards a regime who could not care less about its people. Through these situations are revealed the lack of freedom, the oprression over women, the complicity of those who take profit of this regime and of course the brutality of a regime condemned to sacrifice its own people in order to survive.

The latter will be perfectly depicted through the fate of the father willing to do his job respectfully but obliged to corrupt himself and sacrifice his people in order to survive to this revolution no matter how painful it is.

I particularly enjoyed the insight into the Iranian middle class. Being able to see and imagine what is an every day life for women in Iran is difficult to figure from the Western World. The more the film lenghts the better it gets as you can clearly see the impasse into which the country has plunged, and with it its inhabitants (and in this case this family) condemned to find a guilty among them.

Little by little, we can spot the seeds of discord germinating in this family, into the society, among students, and throughout the world thanks to social networks. That's the other revelation of this film. Social network is the key; that's the tool through which the song Baraye resonates, as well as images of police violence are spread, proofs of the oppression are accumulated, they are the hopes of Iran. The regime can no longer hide behind outrageous lies, the seeds of rebellion are now spread everywhere and the complice of the regime can no longer hide.

A promising outcry and a promising motto for the future Iranian society: Woman, Life, Freedom that we hope, will eventually change Iran for good.

SotSF is pretty great until near the end when the tension started to dissipate (or maybe it is because if you show a gun for that long, the anti-climax of it *not* going off should be earned and I am not convinced this did). Maybe it was seeing so many putting this in the top, top pantheon of the year's films; not only it's Oscar nomination, but the nature of how it was basically smuggled out of the country to be Screened at Cannes (itself a bold and inspiring story to get to where it found distribution for much of the world) brings an expectation, not to mention the run time. The fact that it is really really profound and strong in the ways that matter counts though, especially as a film about family dysfunction and how the roles they've been put into are disastrous.

I loved how the mother was not that sympathetic to the daughters early on, and yet there were more than a few wrinkles in what the filmmaker shows us of the distance between husnand and wife - all those nights where he comes home and she at first stays up but then falls asleep as he is out longer and longer (and to look back after the film is done at those scenes and to understand *why* he was out so long having "meetings" at work adds to the chilling nature of his response) - and that if it wasn't for this missing gun something else was going to break in this family some way. And this is a time period that is not some far off context but a society that is actively in religious oppression and armed to the teeth.

Some of the film is shot fairly standard, coverage being largely shot reverse shot and so forth for dialog, but what's impressive to me is when Rasoulof breaks from this, like when the girl's friend is at the house with the battered face and the mother takes time to pick out the pieces of weaponry from her wounds. That is the most upsetting part of the whole film if I take stock of it all, in how carefully she takes in picking out those pieces, and it's also from here that the mother Najmeh may not say it outright (and she still has a lot of motherly consternation for her daughters after this, especially in the "it'll upset your father" realm, Golestani is in like 6 dimensions with her performance), but she is changed and has to see things differently now. Or will she, is a key question.

It does lean more into a Genre/Thriller kind of story in the last half hour - almost like something out of the Shining if one were to say more like a Horror film (only our dad/husband just has his own maniacal paternal paranoia and self hatred to blame) - and that isn't quite as absorbing as just seeing this family at home. But we do need that moment where the two people following the family on the road confront the dad, for us to see just what extent they are at now in the story, and that it almost has to unravel from there with what the gun is really all about. And all of this with the immediate and harrowing backdrop of the protests and demonstrations of the period, it makes for an extremely satisfying film.

Many of us know about the recent protests in Iran and the tragic death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. The hijab is mandatory in Iran and is enforced by over zealous religious police. Outside of Iran it is hard to understand that something that seems trivial to us is such a big issue.

This film works because it takes us inside a family unit that is impacted by these very issues. It appears to use actual protest footage ( suitably obscured) mixed in along with the fictional actors. This gives it a more urgent edge.

The husband works as an investigator for the regime. One step away from being a judge. He is under severe pressure at work to process huge numbers of religious "crimes" without any due process. He is finding out that the price of his promotion is blind obedience.

He has two daughters. One at high school and the other at university (college.) One of the daughters has a friend who is shot after being in a crowd near a protest. We are told she was an innocent bystander.

The mum of the family is very concerned to protect the family status and reputation which will see them get a bigger apartment to live in. However this won't happen unless all aspects of life are squeaky clean. They can't even tell the daughters what the Dad does because it is a security risk.

In one of the first shots of the movie we see bullets being handed over to the Dad along with a pistol. He is being promoted but needs to be able to protect himself.

What we are seeing is an actual literal Chekhov's Gun in the story. A concept you can look up :)

The pistol disappears from the apartment and the dad must find it or face a possible jail sentence for its loss. This ramps up the tension a few levels and the film then somewhat devolves from then on.

The main impact from the film is to personalise the various political pressures on each member of the family. The best art takes us beyond the headlines to show us what is happening and how that looks and feels in real life.

The story is a fiction but feels like a documentary in many respects. As a film it is a success in helping us to empathise with real people caught up in this kind of terror.

I saw this film at a festival. There were some scenes that were unwatchable and quite emotional.

It is now coming up to the 2 year anniversary of that wave of protests. It wasn't just one person who has died in the protests. Records indicate the number is approaching 500 and the ripple waves of anxiety and stress in families can only be approximated but this film goes a fair way to doing just that.

To better understand the concept behind the film, this might help, learn where the name of the film comes from: There are plants known as "strangler figs" that exhibit strange behavior. Strangler figs (genus *Ficus*) begin their life as seeds deposited on the branches of a host tree, typically by birds or other animals. The seeds germinate and send down roots that eventually reach the ground. As the roots grow and thicken, they encircle the host tree, creating a lattice-like structure.

Over time, the strangler fig's roots and branches grow larger and more robust, competing with the host tree for sunlight and nutrients. Eventually, the fig's growth can become so extensive that it constricts the host tree's trunk, restricting its ability to transport water and nutrients. This process can lead to the host tree's death, effectively allowing the strangler fig to take over the space and resources previously used by the host.

The strangler fig does not immediately kill the host tree but rather slowly overcomes it through a combination of physical encasement and competition for resources. This fascinating but destructive relationship highlights a unique strategy in the plant kingdom for survival and growth.