Setareh Maleki, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mahsa Rostami attend ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ press conference during the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 25, 2024 in Cannes, France
Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof told a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday how he had to decide in just a few hours whether to go into exile or serve a prison sentence. He said it was still hard to talk about.
Rasoulof was in the French Riviera city for the premiere of his new play seed of the sacred figNearly two weeks ago he announced he had fled Iran and gone into exile after being sentenced to eight years in prison and lashes.
He said that when he learned he had just a week left before his sentence would come into effect, things moved quickly, especially since authorities had become aware of the existence of his new film.
The director recalled, “I had to say to myself, do I want to stay in prison, or should I leave Iran, geographical Iran, and join the cultural Iran that exists beyond its borders?”
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He said, “It took me two hours to make this decision. I walked around, walked around my house. I said goodbye to the plants I love, and now I have so many plants in my house.”
After this, Rasoulof left the house leaving all his belongings behind. He told reporters, “This is not an easy decision. Even today it is not easy to talk to you about this.”
Iran’s Culture Minister Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili told state media this month that Rasoulof’s film was made illegally and that a crackdown would be carried out on films without permits.
seed of the sacred fig It is about a court official who increasingly exerts control over his family during the protests that follow the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. Mahsa Amini is a Kurdish woman who was arrested by the morality police for allegedly violating the dress code.
The film received the festival’s longest standing ovation following its premiere on Friday night and was well received by critics, who described it as “mesmerizing” and a “blast-a-boo”.
The director, who has been arrested and detained several times on charges ranging from filming without permission to “colluding against national security,” said the idea for the film came from years of confrontations with intelligence services.
“All the characters are inspired by real people, all the scenes are taken from real situations,” he said, adding that the experience also enabled him to evade intelligence services.
“Our lives are very similar to gangsters, the only difference is that we are gangsters in cinema,” he joked at the press conference.
