Mohammad Rasoulof’s ‘The Seed Of The Sacred Fig’ World Premiere Gets Nearly 15-Minute, Emotional Standing Ovation – Cannes Film Festival

This afternoon, Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof debuted his latest feature, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, in Competition here at the Cannes Film Festival to a nearly 15-minute standing ovation.

The fact that the filmmaker was in attendance is especially poignant after he fled his home country through what he described to Deadline as a “complicated” and “anguishing” journey across Europe to a safe house in Germany. Back in Iran, Rasoulof is wanted by authorities who have sentenced him to eight years in prison alongside a series of physical punishments including flogging for “signing statements and making films and documentaries.”

Rasoulof appealed his sentence, and during the lengthy legal process put together a plan to flee Iran, which he told us all together took 28 days on the road.

Best known for his forceful, politically driven features like Manuscripts Don’t Burn (2013) and A Man Of Integrity (2017), Rasoulof has been in the crosshairs of Iran’s hardline Islamic Republic government throughout his career for challenging its authoritarian rule.

Earlier during this Cannes Film Festival Neon acquired North American rights to The Seed of the Sacred Fig which stars Setareh Abdolmaleki, Zahra Rostami, Amineh Mazroei Arani and Niousha AkhshiVardoogh. 

The film follows Iman, an investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, who grapples with mistrust and paranoia as nationwide political protests intensify and his gun mysteriously disappears. Suspecting the involvement of his wife Najmeh and his daughters Rezvan and Sana, he imposes drastic measures at home, causing tensions to rise. Step by step, social norms and the rules of family life are being suspended.

Rasoulof produced the movie with Amin Sadraei, Mani Tilgner, Rozita Hendijanian and Jean-Christophe Simon. It’s co-produced by ARTE France Cinéma with the support of Aide aux Cinémasdu Monde, Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée and Institut Français with the support of MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein. 

Production companies are Germany’s Run Way Pictures and France’s PARALLEL45. Films Boutique is handling the worldwide sales rights to the film, with PyramideFilms set to distribute in France this fall.