Mohammad Rasoulof Will Attend Cannes Screening Of ‘The Seed Of The Sacred Fig’

Max Goldbart
·2 min read

Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof will attend Friday’s Cannes screening of his competition movie The Seed of the Sacred Fig.

Rasoulof announced last week that he had left Iran and was staying in what he described as an “undisclosed location in Europe” in a statement shared with the international press.

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Rasoulof’s reps confirmed to Deadline that he will attend the screening on Friday.

News of Rasoulof’s journey to Europe came a week after his lawyer confirmed that Iranian authorities had handed the filmmaker an eight-year prison sentence for “signing statements and making films and documentaries.” Days after the sentence was announced, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig was handed a competition spot at Cannes.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is about an investigating judge in Tehran who grapples with paranoia as nationwide political protests intensify and his gun mysteriously disappears.

Rasoulof has been in the crosshairs of Iran’s hardline Islamic Republic government throughout his career for challenging its authoritarian rule. In his latest brush with Iran’s hardline regime, he was arrested in July 2022 for signing a petition titled “Lay Down Your Arms” calling on security forces to exercise restraint in relation to popular protests.

He was released on a temporary basis in February 2023 from Tehran’s Evin jail due to ill health and has been under house arrest ever since. Last year, he was invited to serve on the Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury but was unable to accept the invitation after being barred from leaving Iran.

One of Iran’s most prominent directors, Rasoulof has a long relationship with Cannes. His films Manuscripts Don’t Burn (2013) and A Man Of Integrity (2017) world premiered in Un Certain Regard in 2013 and 2017, winning the Fipresci Prize and best film prize respectively.

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