The Seed of the Sacred Fig

2024 2h 47m FR

🙌

7.5

BANGER

★7.5TMDB · 520

DramaThrillerCrime

Synopsis

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Investigating judge Iman grapples with paranoia amid political unrest in Tehran. When his gun vanishes, he suspects his wife and daughters, imposing draconian measures that strain family ties as societal rules crumble.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Soheila Golestani
Najmeh
Misagh Zare
Iman
Mahsa Rostami
Rezvan
Setareh Maleki
Sana
Niousha Akhshi
Sadaf
Reza Akhlaghirad
Ghaderi
Shiva Ordooie
Fatemeh
Amineh Mazrouie Arani
Woman in the Car

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Mohammad Rasoulof
Writers: Mohammad Rasoulof
Languages: Persian
Countries: France, Germany

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 167 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 2 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: France, Germany.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof, shot by Pooyan Aghababaei. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Karzan Mahmood. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Andrew Bird shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Soheila Golestani and Misagh Zare and Mahsa Rostami carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Mohammad Rasoulof directs. Pooyan Aghababaei behind the camera. Karzan Mahmood scores. Andrew Bird cuts. A long sit — settle in. Profitable at the box office. Produced in France, Germany. Dialogue in Persian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 167 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
2Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Released 2 years ago.
4International production across 2 countries: France, Germany.
5Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof, shot by Pooyan Aghababaei. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Karzan Mahmood. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Andrew Bird shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Soheila Golestani and Misagh Zare and Mahsa Rostami carry the top of the cast.
9IMDB entry: tt32178949 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 10 themes, including "police brutality", "husband wife relationship", "court", "judge".
11Released under 18 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Pooyan Aghababaei
Original score: Karzan Mahmood
Editing: Andrew Bird
Production design: Amir Panahifar
Costume design: Nazanin Tavasoli
Makeup / hair: Bahareh Minaee
VFX supervisor: Hymn Aster
Sound: Kai Storck
Runtime: 167 min · 2h 47m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $3,000,000
Box office: $6,501,810
Return: 217% of budget
Original language: FR
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024)

Awards

Lumière Award for Best International Co-Production

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Mohammad Rasoulof

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-02-13
★ 7/10
When “Iman” (Missagh Zareh) gets a promotion at work, he hopes it will lead to his family of wife “Najmeh” (Sohelia Golestani) and daughters “Sana” (Setareh Maleki) and “Rezvan” (Mahsa Rostami) being relocated to better accommodation so that the girls can finally have rooms of their own! He is now to be an investigator for the state, a stone’s throw from the judiciary, and an important job. He discovers quite quickly, though, that his is really little more than a rubber-stamping position for the prosecutors who are enforcing Iran’s increasingly Draconian laws. His workload is only increased by the evident volume of civil disobedience, and for his own protection he is given a gun. At home, his wife is conscious this new job will heap additional pressure on the family and that it’s more important than ever that they keep their noses clean. Their daughters are going to school and college and are experiencing the horrors inflicted on protestors at first hand. This becomes even more poignant when their friend “Sadaf” (Niousha Akhshi) is caught up with brutal consequences. With “Iman” more disconsolate about the compliant nature of his new job family life becomes strained. Then the gun goes missing. They tear their home apart but no trace. Has he left it somewhere? Has it been stolen? The shame that will be heaped upon him, not to mention the three years in jail, should he not find it. He begins to conclude that the thief must be one of his family, and so resorts to ever more extreme measures to force the culprit to own up. When that takes them all to his home village, things starts to come to an head that tests everyone’s mettle and challenges that which all of them have hitherto cherished. The drama itself is tautly paced and becomes almost visceral as the exasperation and panic sets in amongst parents who realise that nothing is now as it was. It’s also supported by some fairly ghastly UGC from mobile phones depicting the actions of the police as they clamp down on the women who are rebelling against the restrictiveness of what they see as an ever more oppressive theocracy that reduces them to positions of little better than slavery. The plot isn’t without it’s holes, and I found the denouement all a little bit unsatisfactory for a number of reasons, not least what auteur Mohammad Rasoulof allows the character of “Iman” to become, but it’s still a compelling critique of how even the most loving of relationships can come undone when pressure, hatred, fear and mistrust are allowed unfettered into an home that’s embedded within the infrastructure of a corrupt and savagely dogmatic regime.

Production companies