Review: A tense household becomes a metaphor for Iran’s divisions in ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’

Reality seeps into “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” in multiple ways, including ones that writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof couldn’t have imagined back when he shot this absorbing drama in secret. “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” was inspired by one such jail stint in 2022, which occurred during the same time as that summer’s “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising, sparked by the death of 22-year-old student Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the police, who arrested her for not wearing a hijab in public. Anticipating his movie’s inflammatory subject matter, Rasoulof had to cast and film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” without tipping off the authorities. “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” may open on Iman, but eventually, the focus shifts to Najmeh and her daughters, who are positioned as the possibility for liberating Iran from its regressive, patriarchal government.