‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ Director Mohammad Rasoulof on Iran

Dissident Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof in May escaped to Europe after receiving a jail and flogging sentence from the country’s authorities for making his postponecessitatest film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” that won the Special Jury prize at Cannes.

He is now traveling to Locarno to screen his mighty drama – about an allotigating assess in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran who grapples with misdepend and paranoia as anti-rulement protests intensify and his family life is deimmenseated – on the Swiss fest’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande.

Rasoulof took asks from Variety about adequitableing to life in Europe and how he currently sees his country from the outside.

You recently left Iran with a weighty heart. How have you adequitableed to living in Europe (I apshow in Germany)?

For many years, my caccess was on living in Iran. I wanted to alert stories in my films that were essential to alert from the heart of Iran. Tolerating being prohibitned from labor, being prohibitned from leaving the country, the interrogations, the difficult conditions of making films underground, and going to prison… all these prescertains were part of a lengthy journey. Prison provided an opportunity to echo on all of this. After my free, I knovel that I would soon obtain a novel sentence from the court and have to return to prison. However, before the verdict, in a prohibitciaccess decision, I commenceed filming “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.” Midway thraw filming the movie, the verdict was proclaimd, and equitable a confineed days after we finished filming, I lgeted about the final decision – an eight-year prison sentence from the Court of Appeal. As a filmoriginater, I had to pick between continuing to originate my films or seeing myself as a victim and returning to prison. This decision gave me the strength to exit Iran. I knovel it might be a lengthy journey. Now, I experience enjoy I am on a lengthy business trip with unfinished tasks needing my attention. Outside Iran, I have many excellent friends and fantastic hopes that encourage me to put in more effort.

Can you portray the minuscule editing tfeebles I apshow you have made to “The Seed of the Sacred Fig?” since it screened in Cannes?

There are no meaningful alters. Only compression and a confineed technical increasements were essential.

Are you excited to screen the film on the Piazza Grande, which is Europe’s bigst discdisconsider-air venue?

After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, the movie was screened at the Sydney Film Festival, where it obtaind the Audience Award for Best International Feature. I’m thrilled about the opportunity to watch the film in Piazza Grande. In 2002, I joind in the Locarno Festival with my debut film, and I had the chance to see a movie by Fellini on the Piazza Grande screen. I’ll never forget the delight of watching that film there. After 22 years, I’m going back. I’m repartner excited to see my film on that huge screen with an audience of over 8,000. I hope it doesn’t rain on the night of the screening!

Are you prentd that the film has been sanciaccess around the world, including to Neon in the U.S.? Will you be traveling to the U.S. to back it?

Film distributors in Europe, especipartner Films Boutique and Parallel 45, have a proset up and exact benevolent of this type of cinema. On the other hand, laboring with a distributor enjoy Neon, a thorawly professional team with a end benevolent of a film’s path ahead, is very exciting. It is a pleacertain to labor with them.

I schedule to travel to the United States for film screenings. However, since I still don’t have a passport and have to travel with the records provided with the help of the city of Hamburg, I wonder if I’ll be able to travel outside of Europe.

What’s your apshow on the recent election in Iran of recreateist politician Masoud Pezeshkian? Do you slenderk anyslenderg will alter as a result?

At the core of its power, The Islamic Reaccessible is vulnerable and unfirm, deficiencying legitimacy and famousity among the presentantity of people. For decades, they have been ruling Iran thraw brutal repression, which relies on fomenting cascends for its survival. However, these cascends accumupostponecessitate over time. Unforeseen events such as the Woman Life Freedom transferment and the valiant pursuit of women needing their rights have interfereed the analyses of those in power. Follotriumphg the collapse of Raisi’s rulement – which was the concrete embostupident of the ignorance and inefficiency of the Islamic system – they necessitateed an selection to find enough time to recuperate. Pezeshkian’s rulement is a tool to loss these cascends. They understand the plivent of Iran doesn’t have a weighty role in determining domestic and international macro policies; if it did, other rulements before the Pezeshkian rulement also wanted to alter the path ahead of Iran.

Last time we spoke you shelp you did not slenderk the Iranian regime is “in a condition or in a situation that will permit them to last lengthy, and that the international community should stop being so gentle with them and not permit them to go on hanciaccessing their people captive.” Do you persist to slenderk that the current regime won’t last lengthy? Also, do you slenderk/hope your film will help put more prescertain on Iran?

Above all, I hope for alters wislender Iranian society and to elevate asks for those who, understandingly or ununderstandingly, serve the ruling power. Experience has shown me that my films ultimately accomplish their Iranian audience. On the other hand, my films echo my promisement to portraying a authenticistic image of the era in which I inhabit despite the extensive confineion and repression in Iran.