<Holy Spider> (2022, directed by Ali Abbasi) exposed the dark facets of Iranian society by reflecting on the serial killer 'Spider' who murdered 16 women and the various layers of people who protected him. It has been less than three years since this adaptation of real events from 2000 to 2001, which pessimistically views the future of those left behind. What more can be said about this absurd drama? It's been a while since I watched <The Seed of the Sacred Tree> (2024), but I avoided it for some time due to the resignation that the suffering of women remains unchanged.
However, the Iranian women in the film, which I faced again after its release, were clearly different from before. Believing that the truth of their struggle for life and freedom lies in Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, they search YouTube for how to pull the trigger to protect themselves. Their existence testified with their whole bodies that resistance had evolved in new ways and that the times had already changed. This is why the film <The Seed of the Sacred Tree> calls Iranian women once again as the subjects of struggle, saying it is too early to despair.
The film unfolds against the backdrop of the 'Hijab Revolution' that shook Iran in 2022. The incident where 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being detained by the morality police for not wearing her hijab properly was officially announced as a death due to illness, but eyewitness testimonies of death by beating sparked public outrage. This false announcement soon spread into nationwide protests under the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom,” and the anti-hijab movement expanded into a resistance directly targeting the Iranian regime. <The Seed of the Sacred Tree> uses this historical reality as an emotional foundation, meticulously tracing the process by which intense street resistance causes the collapse of a middle-class family and ethical conflicts.
Iman (Misagh Zare) is promoted to an investigative judge during the height of the anti-hijab protests, placing him in a political position actively cooperating in suppressing the protests. Under the pretext of 'family safety,' he is armed and his daily life, loyal to the regime, reaches a stage where he imposes the death penalty without hesitation. However, the act of judging others' fates never flows without emotional turmoil. His inner turmoil deepens, and the moral cracks lead to sleepless nights. This anxiety does not remain confined to his conscience but amplifies into conflicts within the family. Particularly, his two daughters, Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setare Maleki), begin to directly question their father's values through their political awakening against the regime. Having opened their eyes to the truth of the outside world through smartphone videos and social media, they declare they will no longer remain confined to the order of the home.
As the eldest daughter Rezvan gradually acquires a clear political language influenced by her peers and grows into a subject denying the regime, the youngest Sana reveals her judgment through quiet observation and practice rather than language. The character of Sana, who acts directly, precisely overlaps with the image of teenage women who played a central role in the hijab revolution. Sana represents the new subject in the changing Iranian society, the 'next generation that has begun to voice,' showing the reality of the turning point where Iman's authority collapses and a new ethic takes root. While the film intricately weaves the perspectives of female characters, Iman's wife Nazme (Soheila Golestani) appears as a character striving to maintain family stability by conforming to the regime. Her attitude of soothing her husband and oppressing her daughters seems conservative on the surface, but it is, in fact, a desperate survival method to prevent the direction of violence from turning inward under patriarchal power. Her silence and patience, sometimes appearing as obsession, portray a complex portrait of how women try to protect their lives between the regime and family.
The awakening to absurdity intensifies during the process where Rezvan's friend Sadaf (Niusha Akshi), who was hit by bullet fragments during a protest, is treated by her mother Nazme. The scene where Nazme removes the bullet fragments from Sadaf's face with her hands is presented in overwhelming close-up. This scene symbolically shows that violence has entered the home and that everyday life can no longer be peaceful, indicating that the cracks in society have reached the most private spaces. Subsequently, the cracks within the family become more pronounced. Rezvan asserts, "The broadcasts are all lies," while Iman still advocates the legitimacy of public power. This conflict soon turns into an incident where a gun disappears from the house, raising the narrative tension to its peak. The missing gun serves as a device driving the suspense in the film and symbolizes the loss of control and prestige that Iman held as the head of the family. Disarmed, Iman senses the cracks in the system and power he represented and spirals out of control. The once harmonious family thus collapses in an instant.
<The Seed of the Sacred Tree> is a 'hybrid of genres' where documentary, thriller, suspense, and social indictment are intertwined. Tension escalates around the object of the gun, the family collapses, and the truth of the streets is inserted in a documentary format. Although the format appears heterogeneous, its hybridity resembles the complexity of reality itself. Director Mohammad Rasoulof, who has sharply delved into the absurdities of Iranian society through films like <A Man of Integrity> (2017), which received the Un Certain Regard award at the 70th Cannes Film Festival, and <There Is No Evil> (2020), which won the Golden Bear at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, skillfully combines political narrative and cinematic experimentation in this work as well. However, this film does not remain merely as a film. During filming, the Iranian authorities sentenced the director to 8 years in prison, flogging, and confiscation of property, citing reasons such as the actress not wearing her hijab properly and the film being made with the intent to commit a crime against national security. Consequently, the director crossed the border to Europe at the crossroads of imprisonment and exile, and the film became a result of existential struggle in itself.
The actors were no exception. Soheila Golestani, who played Iman's wife Nazme, also faced the threat of 74 lashes and a one-year prison sentence for appearing in the film, and is currently under a travel ban, completely prohibited from attending award ceremonies or engaging in international activities, and is under house arrest in Tehran. The two actresses who played the daughters, Mahsa Rostami and Setare Maleki, who fled Iran with director Mohammad Rasoulof and attended the Cannes Film Festival, also chose exile and are currently residing in Berlin, Germany.
The 2024 Cannes Film Festival established a 'Special Jury Prize' to honour the significance of this film. The one film you must witness now, <The Seed of the Sacred Tree>, was released on June 3 and is currently showing in theatres.
