Powerful thriller captures 2022 Iranian ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement

Chris Newby, Tower Hamlets Socialist Party

In the last 18 months there have been at least three films produced by Iranian directors released outside of Iran that in their different ways are critical of the Iranian regime: ‘My Favourite Cake’, ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ and ‘It Was Just an Accident’. These films all reflect a mood of opposition to the regime in Iran that has now broken out into mass protests. The directors of all these films have faced restrictions by the regime, with the director of ‘It Was Just an Accident’ Jafar Panahi regularly being imprisoned.

The director of ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’, Mohammad Rasoulof, before the release of this film was served with an eight years jail sentence and flogging, and was forced to flee Iran along with some of the actors and production team. This film is set around the time of the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ mass movement that developed in 2022 following the murder in custody of Mahsa Amini.

The film centres around the character of Iman and his family. Iman is a lawyer who has just received a promotion to a position of government prosecutor, which brings with it an increase in his standard of living. But it also has potential dangers for which he is given a gun. This gun plays a central part in the film, particularly when it goes missing. Iman is clearly a supporter of the regime and is angered when his daughters show support for the protests, and even more so when the eldest daughter gets involved in the movement. This gives an indication of how those people related to the regime could be affected by these protests and how youthful they are.

The film is very well made, at times a thriller and at times very fast paced, with some excellent performances particularly Soheila Golestani who plays Najmeh, Iman’s wife, who develops from supporting her husband to being an ally of her daughters. One of the more powerful parts of the film is the use of actual footage of the protests taken from protesters’ phones, with one filming their own shooting by a member of the security services.

This film is available on many online platforms and I would encourage everyone who can to watch it.