Mohammad Rasoulof‘s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” earned a rapturous 12-minute standing ovation at its Cannes Film Festival premiere on Friday. Rasoulof risked his life by appearing at the Cannes premiere as he recently fled Iran to avoid an eight-year prison sentence for making the film.
There was undeniable applause as the film’s credits began to roll (though it is Variety‘s policy to begin timing the standing ovation once the house lights come up), with Rasoulof tearing up and waving to the balcony. Ali Abbasi, the director of fellow competition title “The Apprentice,” stood next to Rasoulof and encouraged the crowd to keep clapping — not that they needed it, as the crowd’s cheers just seemed to get louder and louder. There was even a sign in the audience reading “Femme! Vie! Liberté!” (“Woman! Life! Freedom!”).
Rasoulof thanked the crowd in Farsi, expressing hope for a better future in Iran and saying that many actors in the film didn’t have permission to come to Cannes. On the red carpet, Rasoulof — who has previously served prison time in Iran — held up images of Golestani and Zareh, who were unable to leave Iran for the premiere. In an interview with Variety on Thursday, Rasoulof said that Golestani has been arrested by Iranian security services.
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The esteemed director left Iran illegally on May 13, hiding in Europe until traveling to Cannes. In addition to his prison sentence, Iranian authorities had been pressuring him to pull “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” from the Cannes Film Festival and harassing the film’s producers and actors.
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” follows Iman, an “investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, who grapples with mistrust and paranoia as nationwide political protests intensify and his gun mysteriously disappears,” according to its official synopsis. The film stars Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh, Mahsa Rostami and Setareh Maleki.
Rasoulof is a Cannes mainstay, having premiered his 2011 film “Goodbye” in the Un Certain Regard section, where he won a directing award; 2013’s “Manuscripts Don’t Burn,” which also played in Un Certain Regard and won the FIPRESCI prize; and 2017’s “A Man of Integrity,” which won Un Certain Regard’s top prize.
