Marta Balaga Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” won the Fipresci award at Cannes. The jury of the International Federation of Film Critics called it “a courageous story set in modern-day Iran that deals with the conflict between tradition and progress, depicted in a very powerful and imaginative way.” Following a rapturous screening and 2024 record 12-minute standing ovation, the film became a Palme d’Or frontrunner, reported Variety. “The only reason I left Iran – and that was what made me take that decision – was to go on telling the stories of my land.
That was really my only motivation.” “I need to go on telling stories, creating stories. However, this does not mean that I have left the narratives of Iran.
Iran is still inside me, and I still can go on telling Iranian stories and conveying them to the rest of the world,” Rasoulof told Variety’s Nick Vivarelli two days ago.
Currently at Cannes, he fled Iran after being sentenced to eight years in jail for making a film that criticizes the regime.
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