Defiance in filmmaking: Mohammad Rasoulof on the secret production and global acclaim of ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’

Mohammad Rasoulof felt like a criminal while secretly filming his dramatic thriller The Seed of the Sacred Fig in Iran. Throughout the director’s career, he has been targeted by the Iranian government. Officials have sought out to suppress his work, which depicts life under authoritarian rule. If the crew was discovered, the production faced immediate shutdown, with Rasoulof under threat of arrest.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig centers on a family thrust into the public eye when Iman (Misagh Zareh) is appointed as an investigating judge in Tehran. As political unrest erupts in the streets, Iman realizes that his job is even more dangerous than expected, making him increasingly paranoid and distrustful, even of his own wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) and daughters Sana (Setareh Maleki) and Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami).

The film has achieved widespread acclaim including Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards nominations for Best Non-English Film, an accolade it won from the National Board of Review. Rasoulof was also named Best Director by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. For the writer-director, it’s all about visibility.

“The main interest is that it gives exposure to the film, and given the hardship that we’ve been through to make the film, the more people get to see it, the better we have access to its audience and the better it is for all of us,” Rasoulof tells Gold Derby.

Prior to the film’s premiere at Cannes, Rasoulof made a harrowing escape from Iran to Europe on foot. He had been informed by his lawyers that he faced an eight-year prison sentence for his earlier works and activism, a term that would only increase once authorities found out about his latest movie. Rasoulof made it to the Cannes premiere, and remains living in exile. Some of the other crew members were able to escape as well, but others still face prosecution in Iran.

“We now know that in two weeks there will be a trial,” he says. “So some crew members will receive their sentence being absent and a few will be present.”

Rasoulof was inspired to write the script for The Seed of the Sacred Fig after serving an earlier prison sentence. While incarcerated, he followed the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests taking place in Iran. He then had a discussion with a staff member in the prison, which sparked his interest.

“I had a few words that I could exchange with this man who was in charge of the authority of our prison, and then he told me that he had this feeling of shame and self-hatred that made him even consider hanging himself, killing himself, especially because of the pressure he felt from his children who would not accept that he made a living this way and didn’t accept the role that he took in this repression while people of his generation were protesting on the streets,” Rasoulof reveals.

“And I came up with this idea of having a family that is torn apart, in which I would always try and incorporate this reflection that I had about these people,” he continues. “It’s really important to show that the people who participate in a system like this, a repressive system, are not necessarily bad people or negative characters. They’re not evil. What makes them collaborate with the system is all kinds of needs — they feel that they can find a response to their needs through this collaboration with the system. And here, the journey that I found interesting to construct in the film was the first step of this kind of belief or faith that gradually becomes fanaticism, which leads to violence.”

Speaking about the casting process, Rasoulof sheds light on the intense and complex selection of actors who not only fit the artistic bill but also shared a resonating echo with the movement that inspired the film. The narrative naturally attracted those who stood defiant against oppressive mandates, merging real-life rebellion with their roles.

“First, Misagh, the father, I can say that I wrote the role for him because he had told me that he didn’t want to work with official films, meaning filming that undergoes censorship and accepts the regulations of censorship. So I knew that I could rely on him for the role of the father, and I really wrote it specifically for him.”

Then something happened during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests where many actors, specifically women, became vocal about the fact that they would not accept roles in films that required the compulsory veil. “They would not appear in front of a camera with their hair covered,” Rousalaf explains. “So this at least made one group of actresses my target. I knew exactly who I could go to for the kind of roles that I wanted to offer and the kind of project that I wanted them to embark on with us.”

Filming secretly, often directing remotely due to safety concerns and restrictions, Rasoulof describes the logistical challenges faced during production. Each scene was a calculated risk, each location choice a tactical decision.

“Well, for the apartment, I knew already that we would shoot in there,” he says. “It was the apartment of a good friend of mine, so I wrote it for this apartment. But at the same time, knowing that it was a tiny one, it was really small, so we had to break some walls to be able to shoot from one room to the other. It was quite complex, but we already had the apartment and we knew that we had to adjust to its conditions. We had a long construction process in this apartment.”

While construction on the apartment took place, Rasoulof went location scouting for the village and the ruins. “I knew exactly what I wanted, so we found it,” he asserts. “And the same for the family house, for this country house and garden. I knew exactly what I wanted, so we went scouting and we found them.”

“Then the major difficulty was that most of the time I wasn’t able to be on set with them,” Rasoulof reveals. “I had to direct remotely. So I was hiding, sometimes nearby, sometimes further. And we had already organized everything. Everything had been split between two kinds of tasks, the technical tasks and then the artistic tasks. And I had two specific ADs, one in relation with the image, sound and technical team, and the other for all the artistic aspects or the relation with the actors, and then with the set and costume designers. I had a remote monitor and I was able to direct from a distance.”

The unique filming process required long rehearsals with the cast. “We had already done all the analysis of the characters and worked on sensitive, specific scenes so that once we go on the shoot, we had no surprises, at least due to the content of the film,” he explains.

Concluding the interview, Rasoulof reflects on the inexhaustible spirit that drives him to defy censorship through his films. “It’s been all about being myself and being as close as possible to what I wanted to create. That’s it.”

Photos courtesy of Neon