The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Neon | Release Date: November 27, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 28, 2024
The film itself is a mesmerisingly gripping and controlled parable-thriller in which the paranoia, misogyny and rage of the Iranian state are mapped seamlessly onto an ordinary family unit. Read full review
100
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMay 28, 2024
It clocks in at three hours but not a scene feels superfluous as its central quartet – dad, mum, two teenage daughters – squabble, fall out and finally implode in a subversive final act. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubMatt SchimkowitzNov 27, 2024
Eschewing the formal flare of his previous work, Rasoulof finds something more immediate here, a drama that burns like a political thriller and sears like a documentary. Read full review
91
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodMay 28, 2024
A victim of a politically motivated jail sentence for supporting the 2022 Masha Amini hijab protests, Rasoulof‘s latest feature will likely anger the Iranian government even more. Especially considering how brilliant “Sacred Fig” is at deconstructing the rampant injustice in the totalitarian state. Read full review
91
IndieWireRyan LattanzioMay 25, 2024
Rasoulof crafts an extraordinarily gripping allegory about the corrupting costs of power and the suppression of women under a religious patriarchy that crushes the very people it claims to protect. Read full review
90
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Noel RansomeJan 10, 2025
It plays out like that rare piece of art capable of capturing the individual agency inherent in both resistance and compliance. An entire history of oppression isn’t needed here – that is beyond the scope of any one film and a waste of this one. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Roxana HadadiNov 27, 2024
Thanks partially to actual protest footage filmed by Woman, Life, Freedom participants, there’s a thoroughness to the way the film presents the perspectives of the young women living in the country. Read full review
90
The Daily BeastNick SchagerNov 27, 2024
Rasoulof’s film damns Iran for its fanatical, corrupting, chauvinistic tyranny, all while generating breakneck suspense and, ultimately, resolving its tale with a disaster that contains within it a measure of hopefulness. Read full review
90
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonNov 27, 2024
The Seed of the Sacred Fig asks us to enter a family’s story, but also to acknowledge that we are part of it. We’re extras in the background, no matter how far away we are. For Rasoulof, the world he’s created is far from theoretical. The consequences have been, too. Read full review
90
The New YorkerJustin ChangNov 26, 2024
Beneath Rasoulof’s blistering rage erupts a wellspring of empathy: for young women, like Rezvan and Sana, fighting to be heard, and for wives and mothers, like Najmeh, participating in their own oppression. Read full review
90
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannSep 9, 2024
The transition of tones is subtle - you don't realize you're watching a horror movie until it's too late. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 25, 2024
The situation Rasoulof depicts is hardly limited to Iran. There are echoes of Nazi Germany and modern-day China in the way average citizens submit, while the pressures to inform on one’s neighbors recall pre-perestroika Soviet policies. Rasoulof’s genius comes in focusing on how this dynamic plays out within a family, which makes it personal. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerMay 25, 2024
As Rasoulof intercuts real footage and fiction, we realize that what the family is going through is an extension of what the entire country has been facing. Read full review
90
ColliderChase HutchinsonMay 25, 2024
It's a remarkable, revolutionary work of art. As precisely focused and tightly constructed as it is expansive in its aspirations, it’s a rallying cry for the irreplaceable value of artistic expression in a world that will repress it at all costs. Read full review
88
Washington PostTy BurrJan 2, 2025
At times heavy-handed in its symbolism, “Seed” is still a gripping, provocative knockout — a domestic political thriller — that hints at the limits of oppression and the long, long bending of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “moral arc.” Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireNov 27, 2024
Rasoulof gets terrific performances from all of his cast, but particularly noteworthy is Sohelia Golestani's work as Najmeh, which captures the woman's subtle, gradual transition from defender of her husband to an ally of her daughters. Read full review
83
The Film StageDavid KatzAug 30, 2024
What we have is a domestic thriller initially consigned to the domicile before the impact of its primary, female characters shatter those confines, taking it to the desert-like ex-urban outskirts and the hypothetical beyond. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeFeb 10, 2025
The Seed of the Sacred Fig may not be his most elegant picture – it has pacing issues and a laboured final act – but it is without doubt Rasoulof’s most important film to date. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeFeb 6, 2025
More than a few critics have suggested the film ends up losing the run of itself, but few would deny that it remains indecently entertaining up to the last frame. Odd, special, important. Read full review
80
EmpireIan FreerFeb 5, 2025
Understated performances and unflashy filmmaking coalesce into an absorbing mixture of the personal and the political. It may take its time but, given the circumstances of its making, this is an extraordinary achievement. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesTim GriersonNov 28, 2024
By making the political personal, Rasoulof warns us that repression starts at home. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithNov 27, 2024
Through a single family, Mr. Rasoulof has created a vivid portrait of the dilemmas of today’s Iran, where the power of iman, or faith, suggests one kind of observation but the power of the iPhone suggests another. Read full review
80
Vanity FairRichard LawsonMay 25, 2024
This is a sad and frightening story about a family’s undoing, but Rasoulof ekes out some hope too. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 25, 2024
The film may not be perfect, but its courage – and relevance – are beyond doubt. Read full review
78
The AtlanticShirley LiDec 12, 2024
The film is, as a result, a portrait of how Rasoulof perceives the systematic oppression within his home country, from which he is now exiled. The government’s rejection of its citizens’ efforts for change is personal to him—as devastating and painful, the film suggests, as having a father turn against his own flesh and blood. Read full review
70
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyMay 25, 2024
The film is uneven: gripping when it maps out psychological stresses in a claustrophobic domestic setting, less so in the final stretches when it incongruously morphs into a women-in-peril thriller. Read full review
70
The Film VerdictDeborah YoungMay 25, 2024
Building slowly, the story morphs into a thriller, and finally a sort of horror film, though these parts feel more like decent imitations than real genre work. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineDavid RobbSep 8, 2024
Often blunt and unwieldy, Mohamed Rasolouf's film is nevertheless impactful. Read full review
60
Little White LiesMark AschFeb 7, 2025
Timely, anguished, and ultimately cathartic, the movie meets its moment. Read full review
50
Paste MagazineKatarina DocalovichAug 19, 2024
Rasoulof knows a much more challenging and incomprehensible reality than many of us ever will, but it’s missing from the straightforward obviousness of The Seed of the Sacred Fig. Read full review
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