The Iranian director while serving his jail term in 2022 observed the Jina Revolution unfolding on the streets. That is what makes his impressive Cannes entry so effective, it translates all that drama into a family with two daughters.
For over twenty years, Iman (Misagh Zare) has been a civil servant doing jobs which Iran’s young people of today would feel disgraced to be associated with. He chooses not to tell them for now. Finally, Iman was promoted due to loyalty but not as a judge (which he wishes) but as an inspector (that no one desires). When they are arrested for protesting, inspectors such as Iman interrogate students of his daughter’s age and append a death sentence on dissidents. The point is that Iman does not work for the regime; he is the regime itself.
Mohammad Rasoul of counters his own imprisonment in 2022 characterized by protests following Jina Mahsa Amini’s death after being detained and beaten for wearing an immodest hijab with the bitter thinking man’s thriller “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” which examines Iranian tensions through an aptly placed Tehranian family. For most of this slow-boiling nearly-three-hour movie, though, Najmeh (Soheila Golestani), who submits to authority and follows rules, not her husband Iman, remains its main character. Women took stock during the historic Jina Revolution in Iran and “Seed” chronicles their awakening; initially confined to students until it becomes widespread among ordinary folks like Najmeh.
But at first she wants nothing more than for her husband to be successful so much so that she tells her two daughters Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki) to be perfect in every possible way their behavior, dress code and company kept She frowns upon Sadaf even though she is more liberal-minded than her own daughters. The family could be ruined by even the slightest mistake, and it would cause Iman to lose his job, so Najmeh cannot allow that now that they’ve finally been able to upgrade to a three bedroom apartment. At work Iman enforces existing power structures while she does likewise at home.
Lead actress Golestani played a role in the movie after she had already been imprisoned like Rasoulof (who somehow made it into the premiere of his film on the last day of competition in Cannes) for political activism. Najmeh takes everything on TV as truth and tells off her daughters when they display a little independence. “They’re not people, they’re thugs,” she spits out at those young people in the streets shouting slogans such as “Down with the dictatorship! Down with theocracy. But numerous unsettling real-life videos – unedited footage of popular uprisings – are interspersed throughout this picture.
It is crucial for the family to be aware that these tensions are a reflection of those in Iran’s larger society. Iman and Najmeh both believe in the regime as well as its religious underpinnings which give their beliefs an ominous sense of righteousness. “Verily, I submit unto the one who submits to You, and I am hostile against whoever takes you on until the Day of Resurrection,” he kept telling himself. However, this latest promotion has been gnawing at him strangely. Upon his promotion his colleague Ghaderi (Reza Akhlaghi) gives Iman a gun – for ‘self-defence’ he says. Nonetheless, it only adds to Iman’s paranoia especially after disappearing from their home.
Who stole it? As feminists teamed up with university students during Jina Revolution, some officials’ names, photographs and addresses came out. Is there any chance that they could have broken into any one of these activists? Maybe Sadaf, who arrived with her face filled up with shotgun pellets following a run-in with police? What if perhaps someone in Imam’s family took the pistol away? Losing the weapon may mean losing a job and three years imprisonment for Iman. But what would be meant by taking it away or doing so?.
It is 86 minutes into this film when Rasoulof delivers this turning point that serves as its midpoint shifting what had been rather instructive look at conservative-minded parents versus change-oriented children toward more suspenseful consideration of how far elder generation can go towards keeping power.
Rasoulof’s technical prowess is among the finest within Iranian cinema dominated by such internationally acclaimed directors who tend to work either in miniature or meta-fictional style. He does not shy away from marathon running times (his Berlin-winning 2020 feature “There Is No Evil” clocks in at just over two and a half hours) but also remarkably selective about what information to give away. While his dramaturgical instincts are not quite as literary or as tight as those of “A Separation” director Asghar Farhadi’s, he clearly knows Chekhov: once Iman’s gun appears we know it is only a matter of time when the firearm gets fired. Disappearance makes it all the more intriguing.
This scene in real life is unimaginable and horrific to behold as Iman takes both daughters and his wife towards colleague Alireza (the actor requested anonymity) for questioning. According to Rasoulof, students detained by police after being involved in protests are placed in solitary confinement until they agree to record confessions on camera. However, Najmeh objects to how Alireza is treating her. “No one sitting there has ever been treated so respectfully,” he responds. This was the scariest moment yet nothing compared with what Iman had planned for them when he drove them out to their family home.
So, Rasoulof in the final act of this long film (which is never tedious) does everything to surprise and confuse us; as a result, Iman locks up his loved once. In this case, Sana has found herself lost in the ruins of Iran a dilapidated maze where she stumbles upon a pile of old films such as that with an outlawed song from over half a century ago remembering women’s hair. Presently it can be suicidal to expose one’s body. This man starts treating his wife and children like a patriarchal society would treat its citizens with more suspicion and unreasonable brutal force.
Rasoulof illustrates a situation which is by no means specific to Iran alone. Hints of Nazi Germany and contemporary China are evident here where ordinary people submit just as they did back then while the pressure on people to spy on their neighbours is reminiscent of pre-perestroika Soviet practices. The brilliance of Rasoulof lies in how he deals with the situation within family settings; thus, he makes it personal. Initially, Iman hesitates to accept an assignment that contradicts his values. By the climactic last scene of this astonishing allegory, what he stands for has been eroded over decades of compromise threatening him alongside the system that made him compromise.
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