Busan Jury President Mohammad Rasoulof Says German Oscar Submission For ‘The Seed Of The Sacred Fig’ Should Give Other Filmmakers Hope
deadline.comMohammad Rasoulof, president of the New Currents jury at this year’s Busan International Film Festival, said that Germany’s selection of his latest work, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, as this year’s Oscars submission should offer hope to other filmmakers working under strict censorship conditions.
Rasoulof is currently living in exile in Germany after fleeing Iran on the eve of this year’s Cannes film festival – where The Seed Of The Sacred Fig screened in competition and won a Special Award – after Iranian authorities sentenced him to eights years imprisonment for making the film without a permit.
Germany subsequently selected the film as its submission for the Best International Feature category of the Oscars. There was zero chance that Iran’s government-influenced Oscars selection committee would have chosen the film. “The investors of the film were German, and the producer was from Germany, so although the film is Iranian, the German delegation accepted the film,” Rasoulof said at the New Currents jury press conference in Busan today. “This has great meaning as it shows they are opening their arms and understanding of other cultures and human expression.” He added: “The selection of this film should give great hope for other filmmakers in Iran making films under censorship.
There are also other films submitted to the Oscars that are chosen by the regimes of other countries. So, we hope the films [that they wouldn’t select] also have a chance to go to the Oscars.” Rasoulof is overseeing a jury that also include Korean director Lee Myung Se (Nowhere To Hide, The Killers), Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu (Better Days, The Breaking Ice), Indian actress Kani Kusruti (Girls Will Be Girls, All We Imagine As Light) and
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