Cinema Islemunda x IFFR: The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Leading up to IFFR 2026, Podium Islemunda and IFFR are teaming up once again to show a selection of films that screened at previous editions of the festival. On Friday 16 January, we’re screening The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2025). Will you join us?

About The Seed of the Sacred Fig

It is this exchange between a worried woman and a conservative man that summarises the tensely driven The Seed of the Sacred Fig. Its first half is a tale ripped from the news headlines, as members of a family grapple with the social turbulence sparked by human rights abuses against women in recent years. Teenage daughters Rezvan and Sana are shaken by the uncertain fate of their friend Sadaf, who has been hurt and taken into police custody during a street demonstration. At the same time, their father, Iman, is promoted to the position of investigating judge, in which he is pressured to hastily convict arrested protestors. The film’s second half becomes a modern thriller in which the paranoid Iman turns, with increasing ferocity, against his wife and children. 

Filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, fled Iran to escape an 8-year prison sentence because of this film. Rasoulof traces a nightmarish progression from the rituals of everyday Iranian life to the intimate terror of a family divided by religious and political allegiances, and by a State apparatus that knows how to deform hearts and minds.

Location: Podium Islemunda, Herenwaard 17, 3078 AK Rotterdam
When: Friday 16 January (19:00)
Admission: €6
Tickets: via Podium Islemunda