--- title: "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" year: 2024 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig" fi1m_id: "the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig" imdb_id: "tt32178949" tmdb_id: 1278263 wikidata_id: "Q125563776" fi1m_score: 80 critics_score: 80 critics_reviews: 22 published: "2026-09-30T22:27:55.002454+00:00" updated: "2026-09-30T22:28:19.326043+00:00" region: "SA" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024) Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof · 2h 47m · Drama, Thriller, Crime ## Identity The Seed of the Sacred Fig - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig - **IMDb ID:** tt32178949 - **TMDB ID:** 1278263 - **Wikidata ID:** Q125563776 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32178949/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1278263, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q125563776 **Fi1m score: 80** · Critics 80 from 22 reviews *In a sentence:* One flat, one missing pistol, and a father who is sure the problem in the house is his daughters > Mohammad Rasoulof’s drama about a Tehran judge whose household cracks along with the country during the 2022 protests is as tense as any thriller for two hours, carried by Soheila Golestani. It is 167 minutes long, and we would have taken twenty of them away. ## Synopsis Tehran, autumn 2022. Iman (Missagh Zareh) has just been promoted to investigating judge at the Revolutionary Court, a job that comes with the promise of a bigger flat, a pistol for his protection and a stack of indictments he is told to sign without reading. His wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) wants the family to keep its head down so the promotion sticks. Their daughters, Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami), at university, and Sana (Setareh Maleki), still at school, are watching phone footage of the protests that followed the death of Mahsa Amini and asking questions their father will not answer. Then Rezvan’s friend Sadaf (Niousha Akhshi) turns up at the flat with her face full of buckshot, and Najmeh has to decide whose side she is on. Iman keeps the gun in a bedside drawer. ## Review Mohammad Rasoulof shot *The Seed of the Sacred Fig* in secret and left Iran to avoid a prison sentence before it was first shown. It would be easy to review the circumstances instead, and we will try not to. It runs 167 minutes, most of them inside one Tehran flat, and for the first two hours it grips like a good thriller. The last hour is a different, lesser film, and we will come to that. Rasoulof, who also wrote it, states the idea plainly. Iman (Missagh Zareh) is promoted to investigating judge and handed a gun. Outside, women are pulling off their headscarves and being shot at. Inside, his daughters Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki) are watching it happen on their phones. Iman’s colleague Ghaderi (Reza Akhlaghirad) tells him the job is to sign what he is given. He signs. Then the gun disappears, and we will say nothing about who has it, except that Iman’s first suspects are the three women he lives with. Soheila Golestani is the reason it works. Najmeh begins as the regime’s most useful citizen: a woman who believes what she is told and polices her daughters so their father does not have to. Golestani never plays her as stupid. Watch her at the door when Sadaf (Niousha Akhshi) arrives bleeding, weighing what it will cost the family to let the girl in, and then letting her in anyway. The scene that follows, Najmeh at the bathroom sink with tweezers, pulling pellets out of a young woman’s face, is the one we have not been able to shake. We flinched at every pellet, and then we noticed Najmeh’s hands were steady and her mouth was not, and we understood which way this woman was going to go. Pooyan Aghababaei shoots the flat close and dim, in the yellow of overhead bulbs, so that the family seems to be in one another’s way. He does nothing to the phone footage, which is real, vertical and shaky, and editor Andrew Bird cuts it into the drama without softening it. The first time a clip of a real girl being beaten appeared inside a scripted scene, it stopped us cold, and we think Rasoulof wants it to. Karzan Mahmood’s score is sparse, low and mostly absent from the flat. Amir Panahifar dresses the place as respectable and slightly too small, the home of people who have done what they were told and are waiting to be rewarded. Zareh has the harder job. Iman is a weak man handed a little power, and for a long stretch Zareh plays him as tired rather than cruel, a father who wants his daughters to stop making things difficult. The dinner-table confrontations, in which Rostami’s Rezvan will not let a lie pass and Maleki’s Sana watches her mother for a sign, are the best-written scenes in the film. Nazanin Tavasoli’s costumes do quiet work here: the daughters’ clothes loosen, scene by scene, while Najmeh’s stay exactly as they were. The last stretch is a different film, and we will not describe it. Rasoulof leaves the flat, and once the gun is out of the drawer Iman sits his wife and daughters down and questions them one by one, and they answer him in speeches about duty, God and what a father owes, aimed at the camera as much as at him. Some of Aghababaei’s daylight is striking, bleached until stone looks like bone, but we had been frightened for two hours by a family at a table, and we were not frightened by what replaces it. It runs twenty minutes too long, and every one of them is here. Rasoulof’s earlier work was quieter and more oblique, and this is his angriest film. We do not hold that against it; there is a great deal to be angry about, and the anger is what puts the bathroom scene and the dinner table on screen. It is also what tips the ending into melodrama. It is a 15 certificate, and the phone footage is the reason. See it for Golestani, and for the first two hours, and forgive it the third. We did. *Fi1m score 80, published 30 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics are on the film’s side, and none of the reviews turn against it. They describe a family drama that becomes a domestic thriller once the state’s paranoia gets inside the flat, and they take the household as a stand-in for the country. Praise clusters on the cast, above all Soheila Golestani as the mother Najmeh, whose slow loss of certainty several critics single out as the film’s centre. Rasoulof’s unflashy direction and his use of real protest footage also draw approval. The reservations gather around the last act, which even admirers call overblown, and which a few find slips into a more ordinary thriller and upsets the earlier balance. A handful think the allegory too blunt and the opening didactic. The spread is narrow and tilted upward: four reviews are mixed, none negative. Paste goes furthest, finding the film obvious and its characters flat; Slant judges the symbolism overloaded. ## Straight answers **Is The Seed of the Sacred Fig worth watching?** *The Seed of the Sacred Fig* is worth watching for anyone who can sit through 167 minutes of a family drama that grips like a thriller, and we scored it 80. Soheila Golestani carries the first two hours as a mother deciding whose side she is on. The last stretch tips into speeches and melodrama, and we would have cut twenty minutes. **How long is The Seed of the Sacred Fig, and what is it rated?** *The Seed of the Sacred Fig* runs 2h 47m. It is a drama and thriller film. **Where can I watch The Seed of the Sacred Fig in Saudi Arabia?** *The Seed of the Sacred Fig* is not on any streaming or rental service in Saudi Arabia at the moment. It is available in 19 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is The Seed of the Sacred Fig, and is it suitable for children?** *The Seed of the Sacred Fig* is a UK 15 and not suitable for children. The real phone footage of protesters being beaten, cut into the drama without softening, is the reason for the certificate, and a scene of pellets being pulled from a young woman's face made us flinch. The threat is mostly a father with a gun; it is tense rather than graphic. **What should I watch after The Seed of the Sacred Fig?** After *The Seed of the Sacred Fig*, try [*A Separation*](https://film.one/film/a-separation) (2011, Fi1m 93): Farhadi’s Tehran marriage drama, where a single lie divides a household and a courtroom. Then [*The Lives of Others*](https://film.one/film/the-lives-of-others) (2006, Fi1m 84): East Berlin, a Stasi listener and the slow discovery that the state is wrong; and [*Z*](https://film.one/film/z) (1969, Fi1m 84): Costa-Gavras’s political thriller about a cover-up, cut like a chase and just as angry. ### Reviews we read (22) - **Evening Standard**, Nick Howells (5/5): Howells calls the film gripping, intelligent and essential viewing, despite noting that some may find its finale excessive. He singles out Soheila Golestani’s restrained performance and the tense, escalating family crisis for praise. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/seed-of-the-sacred-fig-review-iran-mohammad-rasoulof-oscars-b1209310.html) - **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (5/5): The review presents the film as a masterly, exceptionally bold family drama. It singles out its forceful attack on Iran’s repressive state. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-2024) - **IndieWire**, Ryan Lattanzio (A-): Lattanzio calls the film a shattering masterwork and an ultimately hopeful allegory about repression. He praises its gripping domestic-thriller descent and the understated, courageous performances. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-review-mohammad-rasoulof-1235008351/) - **The AV Club**, Matt Schimkowitz (A-): The review finds the film an unpredictable domestic thriller where personal life and politics are inseparable. It praises the way Rasoulof builds paranoia inside the family’s apartment and turns the household into a microcosm of the country. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-review) - **Empire**, Ian Freer (85/100, inferred): Freer calls the film a bold, timely and gripping achievement. He particularly praises how its understated performances and unflashy filmmaking connect the personal and political. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/seed-of-the-sacred-fig/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Tim Grierson (85/100, inferred): Grierson finds the drama absorbing, grim and ultimately cathartic in its portrayal of repression entering family life. He especially praises Soheila Golestani’s moving performance as a mother whose unquestioned beliefs begin to unravel. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-11-27/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-review-iran-mohammad-rasoulof) - **The New Yorker**, Justin Chang (85/100, inferred): Chang finds the film a blistering, empathetic epic whose strained final turns still prove powerful. He especially praises Najmeh’s compassion as she tends to her daughter’s wounded friend, a moment that gives the story’s moral conflict profound human weight. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-current-cinema/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-is-a-shattering-epic-of-reproach) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge (Critics Pick): Debruge praises the film as a masterful, suspenseful allegory about authoritarianism and family, despite a slightly didactic opening. He singles out Rasoulof’s focus on family tensions as the source of the story’s personal force. [Read](https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-review-mohammad-rasoulof-1236015287/) - **Vulture**, Roxana Hadadi (85/100, inferred): Hadadi regards the film as a forceful, tense political thriller and an ode to Iranian girls’ and women’s resistance. She especially praises its focus on the young women’s perspectives and the performances in confrontations with their parents. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/review-the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-wants-you-to-be-furious.html) - **Sight and Sound**, BFI (80/100, inferred): The review finds the film an eloquent, unnerving warning about authoritarian power and the struggle for freedom. It praises the performances and surefooted family drama, especially the daughters’ dinner-table confrontation with their father. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/seed-sacred-fig-mohammad-rasoulofs-domestic-thriller-elegant-warning-iranian-regime) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Jordan Mintzer (80/100, inferred): Mintzer finds the film a forceful, deeply personal indictment of Iran’s oppressive system, though its later turns can feel over the top. He praises how Rasoulof uses horror and thriller elements to connect one family’s unraveling with the country’s political violence. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-review-mohammad-rasoulof-1235907982/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (75/100, inferred): Bradshaw finds the film flawed but courageous and urgently relevant. He praises its escalating portrayal of Iran’s misogyny and paranoia, while noting that some character motivations feel unconvincing. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/may/24/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-review-mohammad-rasoulofs-arresting-tale-of-violence-and-paranoia-in-iran) - **Little White Lies**, Mark Asch (70/100, inferred): Asch finds the film timely, anguished and ultimately cathartic, though its later turn sacrifices some of the earlier ensemble balance. He praises the real protest footage for giving the story the raw feeling of an unfolding response. [Read](https://lwlies.com/festivals/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-first-look-review) - **Screen Daily**, Jonathan Romney (65/100, inferred): Romney presents the film as flawed but urgent. He praises its exposure of societal tensions within Iran. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-cannes-review/5194002.article) - **Slant Magazine**, David Robb (2.5/4): The critic finds the film impactful but blunt and unwieldy, with its overloaded allegory and tonal shift weakening the overall result. He praises its balanced portrayal of competing perspectives and the invigorating force of its political indictment. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-review-mohammad-rasoulof/) - **Collider**, Chase Hutchinson (9/10): Hutchinson calls the film a radical triumph and an essential work of cinema. He especially praises Rasoulof’s bold direction and the riveting performances that make the family’s turmoil mirror the political crisis. [Read](https://collider.com/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-review-mohammad-rasoulof/) - **The Wrap** (85/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a standout, profoundly brave work, though somewhat didactic and not subtle. They praise its symbolic visuals and found-footage depictions of state repression and youth courage. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/seed-of-the-sacred-fig-review/) - **The Skinny**, Philip Concannon (★★★★): Concannon praises the film as a vital act of defiance against an oppressive regime. He singles out Soheila Golestani’s nuanced, moving performance as Najmeh. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig) - **Deadline**, Stephanie Bunbury (70/100, inferred): Bunbury finds the film politically urgent and an enjoyable, if overblown, melodrama. She particularly praises the cast’s exceptional performances and the palpable energy created by the risks involved in making it. [Read](https://deadline.com/2024/05/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-review-cannes-1235938200/) - **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (70/100, inferred): Wilkinson finds the film grittily compelling, though its overlong final act slips into formulaic thriller territory. She particularly praises Soheila Golestani’s nuanced performance as a mother whose loyalties shift toward her daughters. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-2024-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) - **The Playlist** (64/100, inferred): The page appears to be a review, but its verdict cannot be determined because access was blocked. No praise or criticism from the article is available to summarize. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-review-mohammad-rasoulofs-searing-indictment-of-modern-iran-cannes-20240524/) - **Paste**, Katarina Docalovich (5.0): Docalovich finds the film disappointingly obvious and less challenging than its subject and production history suggest. She praises the cinematography’s harrowing quality but criticizes the flat characterization and blunt symbolism. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/mohammad-rasoulof/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-review) ## Details - **Director:** Mohammad Rasoulof - **Director:** Mohammad Rasoulof - **Writer:** Mohammad Rasoulof - **Cinematography:** Pooyan Aghababaei - **Editor:** Andrew Bird - **Music:** Karzan Mahmood - **Production design:** Amir Panahifar - **Costume design:** Nazanin Tavasoli - **Producer:** Mohammad Rasoulof, Jean-Christophe Simon, Mani Tilgner - **Cast:** Soheila Golestani as Najmeh; Missagh Zareh as Iman; Mahsa Rostami as Rezvan; Setareh Maleki as Sana; Niousha Akhshi as Sadaf; Reza Akhlaghirad as Ghaderi; Shiva Ordooie as Fatemeh; Amineh Mazrouie Arani as Woman in the Car - **Runtime:** 2h 47m - **First release (France):** 24 May 2024 - **Genres:** Drama, Thriller, Crime - **Budget:** $3 million - **Box office:** $7 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbKLGsf1Syg ## Where to watch in Saudi Arabia Not streaming, renting or buying in Saudi Arabia at the last check. Also available in: AR, AT, BE, BR, CA, CL, CO, DE, ES, FR, GB, IN, IT, MX, NL, PA, PL, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Lumière Award for Best International Co-Production 2025: Lumière Award for Best International Co-Production (won) - European Film Award for Best Film 2024: European Film Award for Best Film (nominated) ## If you liked this - *A Separation* (2011), Fi1m 93: Farhadi’s Tehran marriage drama, where a single lie divides a household and a courtroom. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-separation.md) - *There Is No Evil* (2020): Rasoulof’s earlier film on the death penalty, quieter and told in four parts. - *The Lives of Others* (2006), Fi1m 84: East Berlin, a Stasi listener and the slow discovery that the state is wrong. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-lives-of-others.md) - *Holy Spider* (2022): A serial killer in Mashhad and the women who will not let him be excused. - *Z* (1969), Fi1m 84: Costa-Gavras’s political thriller about a cover-up, cut like a chase and just as angry. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/z.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig