Mohammad Rasoulof's provocative film has been banned in Iran, but Germany has submitted it for Oscar consideration

The insidious monstrousness of Iran’s regime and culture is brutally censured by The Seed of the Sacred Fig, in theaters Nov. 27, an acclaimed import whose writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof was forced—on the eve of its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival—to flee his homeland due to being sentenced by the Islamic Republic to eight years in prison and a flogging (along with having his property confiscated).

The filmmaker, whom the Iranian government had imprisoned several times, fled his homeland to escape an 8-year sentence for his latest, which Germany submitted to the Academy Awards.

Rasoulof is among Iran’s most famous and revered filmmakers, his work notable for featuring characters who are government officials, an inherently risky endeavor. With every new movie, these characters became more fully realized and more compelling, leading up to his portrayal of Iman, one of the protagonists in “Sacred Fig.”

Their mother warns, “You must be irreproachable.” With “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Rasoulof has composed an epic of reproach. Iman’s promotion coincides with the Woman, Life, Freedom movement that ignited in 2022,

It's almost exactly halfway through Mohammad Rasoulof's powerful, angry, masterfully crafted "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" that Iman (Missagh Zareh) realizes that he can't find the gun. But it has figured into the drama from the beginning.

A bureaucrat’s promotion comes at a moral cost in this drama directed by Mohammad Rasoulof, who was sentenced to prison during its production and has since fled the country.