The Seed of the Sacred Fig

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was The Seed of the Sacred Fig and it is an incredibly compelling and powerful indictment of the authoritarian regime in Iran.  Iman (Missagh Zareh) is promoted as an investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court of Tehran but, because he must regularly sign death warrants, the position is dangerous because people often attempt to seek retribution.  He is advised to keep his job secret from his family, which includes his wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) and teenage daughters Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki), and he is issued a gun for protection.  However, Najmeh insists that he tell his daughters about his job but they are becoming critical of the regime after the death of a young woman in police custody sparks widespread protests.  Rezvan eventually confronts her father when her friend Sadaf (Niousha Akhshi) is beaten and arrested at a protest.  Iman is under tremendous pressure at work because he is now expected to sign hundreds of death warrants due to the protests so, when his gun mysteriously disappears, he blames his daughters and subjects them to an intense interrogation.  When his personal information appears on social media, Iman's paranoia intensifies and he takes his family to hide at his childhood home which leads to an epic confrontation.  This has a really long runtime but I was absolutely riveted as the domestic drama mirrors the one that is playing out on the streets of Tehran.  The tension escalates very slowly as the two girls come to realize that the information on the news is not supported by what they are seeing on social media (actual footage from the protests that erupted in Tehran in 2022 is used and it is horrifying to watch) and that their father is complicit in what is happening.  Then the tension becomes almost unbearable in the third act with a truly frightening interrogation scene and an extended chase sequence that had me holding my breath.  The performances are understated but very effective (and incredibly brave) and I was especially impressed by Golestani because you can feel how torn Najmeh is between supporting her husband and protecting her daughters.  I was blown away by this movie, and the lengths to which director Mohammad Rasoulof went in order to bring it to the screen, and I highly recommend it.