After “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” (Neon, November 27) received a particular jury prize at Cannes and wowed audiences at Telluride, Toronto, and New York, filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof revealed extra of the unimaginable journey he took to not solely secretly movie the film in Tehran, however to edit it in Hamburg. There, Andrew Hen reduce the movie all through manufacturing by way of scraps of digital camera proxies that may very well be despatched out when the web connection was robust. He didn’t know a phrase of Persian, and labored with a dated model of the screenplay.
Rasoulof had been underneath menace from the Iranian authorities for the previous 15 years, as Iran’s revolutionary courtroom gave him three jail sentences and banned him from making movies or leaving the nation. Thus he was unable to attend the 2020 Berlin Movie Pageant when his movie “There Is No Evil” received the highest prize, nor may he take part within the 2023 Un Sure Regard jury. Finally, attributable to well being considerations, he was freed and pardoned. However then he was sentenced to eight extra years and a flogging and confiscation of property simply as he was ending his newest movie, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which the Iranian officers knew nothing about.
That’s as a result of, between December 2023 and March 2024, the director and his forged and crew shot in secret. When the actresses have been on the streets carrying their hijabs, individuals thought they have been with a state TV mission. “We have been fortunate having a narrative a couple of household whose girls have been carrying the veil,” mentioned Rasoulof on the New York Movie Pageant. “And the city elements of the story allowed us to be on the streets with out attracting an excessive amount of consideration. This was fairly lucky for us to have the ability to shoot outside, and we may proceed working within the crowded elements of Tehran. We saved getting insulted by individuals who have been passing by considering we have been working for the state media.”
One way or the other, they managed to maintain the movie clandestine throughout manufacturing, “a movie that continues to be invisible to the individuals who wish to censor it and repress us,” mentioned Rasoulof. “To start with, I used to be all the time away from the set, from the taking pictures scene. Typically I used to be very far-off. Typically I used to be nearer, however relying on the place I used to be, I wasn’t there. I used to be managing this set with the help of two of my assistants. Considered one of them was working with the technical crew, and considered one of them was working with the actors and designers.”
The director saved a small footprint. “We had restricted sources,” he mentioned. “We had a small digital camera and previous lenses, a few of them have been even images lenses. However as an alternative, we had an excellent crew, a beautiful cinematographer, and individuals who have been working with their coronary heart.”
The film adjustments its tempo because it strikes alongside, turning into extra of a dynamic thriller by the top. “I needed the story of this household to achieve a metaphorical layer,” mentioned Rasoulof. “Then again, the documentary footage that was taken by individuals themselves in the course of the Girl, Life, Freedom motion was so highly effective that I needed to deliver them and weave them into the story of the movie. I had all the time thought that this movie isn’t going to finish. So I informed myself, ‘Do no matter you need.’ So all these collectively type the visible language of the movie.”
The lead character of Iman (Missagh Zareh), an investigating decide within the Iran revolutionary courtroom who’s compelled to play by corrupt guidelines, turns into more and more paranoid, till he’s afraid of his personal spouse (activist Soheila Golestani) and two daughters (Setareh Maleki and Mahsa Rostami).
“It’s been about 15 years that I’ve been coping with the intelligence brokers of the Iranian regime,” mentioned Rasoulof. “I’ve met interrogators, investigators, and judges, and I’ve all the time requested myself the query, ‘What causes us to be dealing with one another on two separate sides?’ The factor that caught my consideration in most of those individuals was their prejudice. I created the character of Iman primarily based on my private experiences of assembly these individuals. All through these years, I had seen the human features of those individuals too. I simply couldn’t perceive tips on how to put the 2 sides collectively, the truth that in some moments they have been so aggressive and violent that they might commit something, and in different moments they have been simply common individuals.”
Rasoulof additionally turned conscious of tales of conflicts with the investigators and their households. “I additionally heard that lots of people who had taken half within the 1979 revolution within the first few years after the revolution had performed many roles in unusual deeds in opposition to their very own members of the family,” he mentioned, “such because the execution of their youngsters, the betrayal of their youngsters, and different acts that one wouldn’t count on somebody to do. Maybe this too, was a supply of inspiration for me to deliver out the violence of those individuals underneath the strain of that prejudice in opposition to even their very own members of the family.”
The film ends in a face-off between the daddy and his household at an historical desert ruins. “After I take a look at the photographs of that village in ruins it’s as if I’m trying on the historical past of Iran in ruins,” mentioned Rasoulof. “There’s a scene in that village that each time I see it I get actually agitated and offended, when the person grabs his spouse by her hair, and drags her on the bottom. I consider it’s been about 150 years that the battle between custom and modernity in Iran has been manifesting itself on a political stage. As an example, if we return to 90 years in the past, we see that the state was attempting to unveil girls by power. And after we look at this time, the identical state and energy is attempting to power the hijab. Then the query is, when is the social id, and particularly the request of Iranian girls, going to be heard? I consider that within the fashionable historical past of Iran, the id of ladies has been taken hostage, and their our bodies have been confiscated by way of individuals’s energy or by way of the media or by way of the powers’ confiscation of their hair.”
Rasoulof is happy with the progress girls are making in Iran to combat again. “And naturally, now the brand new technology needs to vary this sport for a lot of causes, and it has been profitable to a big diploma,” he mentioned. “I don’t need to restrict the motion of Iranian girls to the previous few years, this motion has been very quick, and each time one thing occurs, there’s a new chain that will get added to it.”
As quickly as Rasoulof completed taking pictures, he was compelled to flee or wind up in jail once more. He traveled on foot by way of mountain terrain on routes he discovered about when he was in jail, a 28-day trek to Germany. Somebody on his crew was in a position to fly to Hamburg and ship the arduous drive to the post-production home in Germany.
Editor Hen, who continuously works with Fatih Akin and edited with Rasoulof anonymously on one other movie (“Manuscripts Don’t Burn”) again in 2012, had been modifying the movie all alongside and was ending up when Rasoulof lastly turned up. “We had no contact with one another for about 14 days in that interval,” mentioned Hen. “I didn’t know the place he was. He regarded match. I’d guess what the road may very well be, what’s within the script, if it’s nonetheless the identical because it was once they despatched me this primary draft. My assistant and I subtitled one go on every scene, in the event that they coated the scene in a large shot, we’d subtitle that. And I’d work from that. You’re in a position to decide actors’ performances, and also you see the place there’s an authenticity. And you may make clear selections as to which take is a greater take. It’s not as tough as it’d sound.”
They have been hustling to the Cannes end line. Hen despatched the director some variations of scenes earlier than he left. “I despatched him sequences that I reduce, roughly the entire movie, after we reached that time,” mentioned Hen. “And we’d then telephone and he’d give me some suggestions on what he thought, issues that he needed to analyze a bit extra, however we by no means really spent any time in any respect collectively.”
Reducing within the cellular phone protests was a late resolution, which they have been in a position to experiment with till it labored “in order that the condo in Tehran didn’t turn into completely claustrophobic,” mentioned Hen. “We really acquired some sense of house of the of the town the place that is taking place.”
Neon acquired North American rights to the movie forward of its Cannes premiere, the place it obtained a rapturous 12-minute ovation with Rasoulof available to listen to it. The film has earned three European Movie Award nominations and was submitted by Germany for the Oscars.
The 2 youthful actresses who performed the daughters additionally acquired out of Iran, however Zareh and Golestani are actually being persecuted with interrogations and strain in Iran, accused of spreading corruption, prostitution, and authorities propaganda and conspiracy in opposition to nationwide safety. The federal government has confiscated the passports of the forged and crew. When Rasoulof accepted his particular jury prize on closing night time at Cannes, he held up pictures of his two stars.
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” is now in theaters from Neon.