The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Iranian writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof won the FIPRESCI prize and a special jury award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for this gripping drama about the paranoia that slowly eats away at one Tehran family. Misagh Zareh stars as Iman, a seemingly honorable man recently promoted to investigating judge, which brings with it a hefty raise and a bigger apartment for him, his wife, and his daughters. But he soon realizes he’s made a Faustian bargain—his new job requires him to sign the death warrants of protesters, which angers the women in his family. Meticulously building in tension until it becomes a harrowing thriller, the film is the latest act of defiance from Rasoulof (There Is No Evil), who has been jailed several times by Iranian authorities for his politically outspoken films. (In fact, he fled the country to avoid imprisonment prior to Sacred Fig’s premiere.) The filmmaker’s fury and sorrow suffuse his latest stunner, which brilliantly details how an oppressive regime obliterates the souls of its citizens.