Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the scripts behind the awards season’s most talked-about films continues with the Cannes Film Festival Special Jury Prize winner The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Neon‘s dramatic thriller, written and directed by Iranian Mohammad Rasoulof, which just made the Oscar shortlist as Germany’s entry into the Best International Feature race.
Below, read the screenplays for both the English- and Farsi-language versions of the film, which Neon opened in select U.S. theaters at the end of November. It has since scored Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations for top foreign-language film, and was the National Board of Review‘s Best International Film winner.
The film follows a family thrust into the spotlight when Iman (Misagh Zareh), a newly appointed investigating judge in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, becomes a target. As political unrest erupts with the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, Iman realizes his job is even more dangerous than expected. The disappearance of his gun from his own home fuels his paranoia and doubt within his family.
Iman’s wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) struggles to maintain stability as their teenage daughters, Sana (Setareh Maleki) and Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami), become increasingly involved in the burgeoning movement. Their growing defiance and questioning of their parents’ values further strain the family unit. Najmeh, meanwhile, is torn between her faith, family, and her own conscience as seismic shift is rippling through Iranian society, ignited by the tragic death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman who was arrested by the morality police for not wearing a hijab properly in 2022.
Iman’s position as a judge is a closely guarded secret. But when his cover is blown, he retreats with his family to the ruins of his childhood home. Isolated and powerless, he witnesses the erosion of authority, mirroring the broader societal upheaval. As the movement gains momentum, Iman finds himself a captive in his own family, unable to maintain control.
The film’s palpable sense of danger is heightened by the inclusion of real footage depicting protesters facing violence. Moreover, the real-life actors and Rasoulof risked their lives to secretly film this powerful film.
Rasoulof found out he was to be imprisoned while filming and fled his home country through what he described to Deadline as a “complicated” and “anguishing” journey across Europe to a safe house in Germany, where he was granted asylum. Back in Iran, Rasoulof is wanted by authorities who have sentenced him to eight years in prison alongside a series of physical punishments including flogging for “signing statements and making films and documentaries.”
He told Deadline how the idea for the film had come to him with serving a year in jail for shooting without a permit.
“There was a mix of prisoners of conscience and criminals when I was there,” he recalls. “But for me, it was somewhat of a discovery, because I was trying to focus more on the prison officials and trying to understand their perspective as opposed to having a confrontational relationship with them. The other interesting part for me was that I was watching the political events that were unfolding outside — the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement — from behind bars. And that in itself, watching it with other prisoners from inside the prison, was a very unique experience.”
Here are the scripts:
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