Acclaimed Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof will attend the upcoming 2025 Göteborg Film Festival along with his newest movie, household drama and political thriller “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Germany’s submission to this yr’s worldwide function Oscar race which made the Oscar shortlist on Dec. 17.
Variety charges the movie, which he additionally wrote and co-produced, as one of many 5 frontrunners within the worldwide function class to attain an Oscar nomination on Jan. 17.
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” has additionally scored Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations for foreign-language movie, and gained the National Board of Review’s finest worldwide movie award.
Banned in Rasoulof’s dwelling nation, the movie has already garnered worldwide recognition for its poignant narrative and exploration of political themes. Rasoulof, who at the moment lives in exile in Germany after being sentenced to eight years in jail and flogging by the Iranian regime as he wrapped “Sacred Fig,” continues to create work that critiques the nation’s oppressive authorities.
Rasoulof’s profession has been marked by his unflinching deal with the social and political struggles inside Iran. His movies have usually explored themes of energy, submission, and the dynamics of oppression and civil disobedience.
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” continues that mission, telling the fictional story of Iman, a regime-loyal investigating decide in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court whose life unravels following the dying of Mahsa Amini, a younger girl who died in police custody after being arrested for “improper” hijab-wearing.
Amini’s dying sparks widespread protests throughout Iran, and the movie mixes in archival footage of them because it portrays the following emotional and ideological turmoil that impacts Iman and his household. As tensions rise each at dwelling and in his skilled life, the disappearance of a gun turns into a pivotal second within the story upping the ante on the movie’s stress as Iman’s distrust and paranoia, even of his family, builds.
World premiering on the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, with Rasoulof miraculously in attendance, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” gained a jury created Special Jury Prize, having gleaned the perfect critiques of any movie in competitors in keeping with one ballot. Variety known as it “masterful” and a “thinking person’s thriller.”
Rasoulof’s earlier work consists of standout titles corresponding to “The White Meadows” (2009) and “A Man of Integrity” (2017), which have earned him recognition on the worldwide stage. Despite the threats and persecution he faces in Iran, the director’s movies stay uncompromising, highlighting the facility of artwork within the face of authoritarianism. He is at the moment creating an animated faeture in regards to the Iranian revolution.
“It is an honor to welcome Mohammad Rasoulof to the Göteborg Film Festival as the main guest in our Focus: Disobedience,” mentioned Pia Lundberg, Artistic Director of the Göteborg Film Festival of in the present day’s announcement. “His courage and uncompromising work as a filmmaker, now in exile, remind us of the power of art to challenge authority and shed light on injustice. Rasoulof’s films, created under extreme conditions, are not only artistic masterpieces but acts of civil disobedience that inspire us all to stand up for freedom and human rights.”
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” would be the centerpiece of the pageant’s Focus: Disobedience program, screening on Jan. 30. It will likely be adopted by a Q&A with Rasoulof. In addition to his personal movie, Rasoulof can also be credited because the screenwriter for “Seven Days” by Ali Samadi Ahadi, one other movie featured at this yr’s pageant.
Rasoulof’s movie opens in Swedish cinemas on March 7, distributed by Triart Film. The Göteborg Film Festival runs Jan. 25 to Feb. 2, 2025.
John Hopewell contributed to this text.