Making almost any movie is such a substantial, demandingly collective endeavor, it's hard to grasp the concept of one being made 'in secret.' Yet somehow that has been the case with a number of films made in recent years within and about Iran—a nation whose acclaimed cinematic new wave has been going on for decades now, but which is arguably now better known for banning films than producing them.
In a sense, you can't blame Iranian officials for their Draconian response. When it was selected to compete at Cannes this spring, Mohammad Rasoulof was sentenced to flogging and eight years' incarceration—so he scrammed to, at present, Germany.
Prominent among the latter group is Mohammad Rasoulof, whose new The Seed of the Sacred Fig is not his first movie to be made undercover, so to speak. Threatened with prison, house arrest and/or simply withdrawal of permission to practice their craft, some directors and their collaborators have fled the country.
In a sense, you can't blame Iranian officials for their Draconian response. Seed is a damningly explicit political critique. No matter how much protective secrecy surrounded its production, you can't help but be amazed he got away with making it at all.
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