Three Shows, February 28 - March 2:

Academy Award Nominee: Best International Feature

Iman (Missagh Zareh) has just been promoted to Investigator, which is a stepping-stone to the prestigious position of Judge in Tehran. But as political unrest erupts in the streets, he realizes that his job is more dangerous than expected. To keep his position, he’s expected to blindly follow the dictates of the authoritarian Iranian government. Yet his wife and two daughters have sympathy for protesters demanding human rights. As the story unravels, Iman begins to grow increasingly paranoid and distrustful, even of his own family.

Writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof, himself a former prisoner of conscience, fled his homeland after authorities got wind of this film. With his four brilliant actors, he poignantly shows how totalitarian rule can erode familial bonds. A vivid portrait of the dilemmas that arise when faith suggests one kind of observation and the power of the iPhone suggests another, The Seed of the Sacred Fig provides one of this year’s clearest statements of the necessity of freedom.

(Germany, France, Iran / 2024 / Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof)
PG-13 / 167 min