Cannes 2024: “The seeds of the wild figure”, the rebellion of Mohammad Rasoulof
The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival ended last night. While the criticisms and filmmakers seemed unanimous on the victory of the film The seeds of the wild fig For the Palme d’Or, the jury created stupor by awarding him only a special price. Why this special price? Couldn’t the jury, failing that, give him the Grand Prix? One has the impression that this is a consolation price for the courage of the director Mohammad Rasoulof, who escaped illegally from Iranrather than a price for the exceptional quality of the film, which nevertheless deserved the golden palm.
It should be noted that the same day, the film had won four prizes in Cannes, awarded by other juries: The price Fricescithe price of the ecumenical jury, the Art and Essay Cinemas Prize and the Grand Prix – François Chalais Prize.
For more than two decades, Iman (Misagh Zare) (his first name means faith, coincidence?) Worked as a civil servant, doing a job that his daughters would have been ashamed if they had known. For his loyalty, he obtained a promotion not as a judge, as he wished, but as a “investigator” (investigating judge?), A position that no one really wants. The investigators are those who question the accused, and therefore also young people, artists, opponents, when arrested for demonstrating, and those who approve of the death sentences of alleged dissidents. In fact, Iman does not only work for the Iranian regime, he embodies this diet.
With this intense and thoughtful thriller, Mohammad Rasoulof responds to his own imprisonment in 2022when a wave of protests broke out after the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, arrested and beaten for carrying a hijab inappropriately according to the police. He examines Iranian tensions within a well -placed family in Tehran.
For most of this film of almost three hours, the main character is the wife and mother Najmeh (Soheila Golstani). The Jina revolution marked a turning point for women in Iran, and The seeds of the wild fig portrayed the germination of a new solidarity, which began with the students but which takes root once it is ordinary citizens like Najmeh adhere to it.
Najmeh, at the start, is so attached to the promotion of her husband, who will give her privileges, such as a large official accommodation, that she orders her daughters, Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki), to be impeccable in all respects: their behavior, their clothing, their frequentations … She also disapproves of their friendship with Sadaf (Niousha Akhshi) of mind. With their new social status, the slightest skid could be ashamed of the family and jeopardize the career of Iman, which Najmeh will not allow. While Iman imposes the status quo at work, Najmeh keeps it at home.
However, young girls are starting to realize that the world outside the house is different. They see what is happening, they saw how their friend Sadaf, innocent, found himself injured by police fire attacking the demonstrators. The two young girls are no longer fooled. They are constantly connected to social networks, where they see videos of violently repressed demonstrators, images that Najmeh refuses to believe. She reprimands her daughters whenever they show an interest in these contents, calling them a false propaganda. The young rebels cry out in the streets: “Down with theocracy! Down the dictator! “, But Najmeh, faithful to state information, sees them as thugs. Real videos, inserted throughout the film, nevertheless suggest the opposite and show the brutality of the police.
Videos of demonstrations seen by the girls, and rejected by Najmeh, become a central point of the plot. They illustrate the fracture between those who aspire to freedom and those who maintain the status quo out of fear or by conviction. The film shows that voluntary ignorance and brutal repression can coexist within the same family, reflecting the socio -political tensions of Iran. They also illustrate the difference in generation and the incomprehension of the old generation of this need for freedom and rights that young people demand. This freedom and these rights can be as basic as not to want to wear a veil on your head (therefore dress freely), dye your hair in blue or wear nail varnish. Najmeh and Iman really do not understand these claims. They believe in the regime and the religious precepts on which it is founded, giving their convictions a feeling of scary righteousness.
In addition, the promotion of Iman is consuming him from the inside. He realizes that he must obey orders, that in reality his role does not consist in investigating and instructing files, that he does not even have time to read, but to sign condemnations decided by others, whether or not it pleases him.
His post being critical, his colleague Ghaderi (Reza Akhlaghirad) gives him a pistol for his “self -defense”. This weapon, symbol of his corruption and his compromise, from which he will take care, mysteriously disappears, increasing the paranoia of Iman.
Who was able to take this weapon? Sadaf, marked by police violence, be responsible? Or would it be a member of Iman’s family? If so, which of the three women? Losing this weapon could mean the loss of your job and even a prison sentence. But beyond, what would it mean for Iman and why would someone do it?
This turning point in the middle of the film transforms a didactic portrait into a captivating plot. Iman turns against his own family, forcing them to face the brutal reality of their situation. To try to find his weapon, he will make his wife and two daughters submit to interrogations. This is an opportunity for Mohamed Rasoulof to show us the consequences of arrests, in particular how young demonstrators are tortured until they record confessions. When Najmeh comes up against the cruelty of Alireza, a colleague from Iman who subjected him to an interrogation and who tells him that she is lucky, because normally interrogations do not happen as “respectfully”, she begins to doubt her own beliefs.
The family dynamics, where Najmeh first supports her husband blindly, evolves when she is confronted with the irrefutable evidence of the abuse of the regime. She finally begins to doubt and open her eyes.
Furthermore, while feminists and university students unite their forces, and continue their demonstrations, the names and addresses of certain officials are published to denounce them to the people. Iman is thus denounced on social networks. He who is ready to send innocent people to death for his promotion, begins to panic. His actions reveal how much power and fear can change a man. He who at the beginning of the film could seem a good husband and a respectful father, even if he did not understand his children, will become more and more suspicious, dangerous and particularly selfish, thinking only of his own salvation.
The film gradually turns into a psychological thriller, where the family home becomes a place of terror. Iman, increasingly paranoid, begins to doubt his own loved ones. Mohamed Rasoulof, using his technical know-how, immerses us in this oppressive atmosphere. The disappearance of the weapon, a key element of the film, accentuates the tension. The fears of Iman take a dramatic turning point when he begins to lock up his own loved ones, in an old family home symbolizing the ruins of Iran.
One of the audacity of the film is to film the mother and her daughters in their Tehran apartment without sails, because there is no reason for them to wear them inside, unlike the films authorized by the regime where actresses are veiled in all circumstances. This constitutes a gesture of rebellion on the part of Mohammad Rasoulof, who had already started this approach in his previous film The devil does not existwhere an actress was not veiled in the interior scenes. This artistic decision strengthens the realism and authenticity of the film, while defying the restrictions imposed by the Iranian regime. We also note that the two actresses present in Cannes did not wear sails, unlike the tradition of Iranian actresses. At the press conference that followed the projection, it was revealed that they had also left Iran clandestinely.
The seeds of the wild fig is more than just a film. It is an act of resistance and a powerful testimony of the struggle for freedom in Iran. Mohammad Rasoulof, by making this film in hiding, offers an uncompromising look at the reality of his country. His courage and determination are palpable in each scene.
This film, which should have received the Palme d’Or, is a work of complete art: scriptwriting, visually and emotionally. He exposes corruption, fear and repression while showing the strength of the human mind in the face of oppression. By focusing on family tensions, Rasoulof makes the specific struggles of his country universal, making The seeds of the wild fig An essential film.
Neïla Driss
