Mohammad Rasoulof says guards in Iran asked him for selfies and to watch his films with him, when he was tied to a bed in a prison hospital.
Speaking at Goteborg Film Festival after the Swedish premiere of his Oscar-nominated The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, Rasoulof related a story from his time in Iranian prison. The director received one-year sentences in both 2019 and 2020 for what Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court described as “propaganda against the system”.
During his imprisonment Rasoulof required an operation, which is only allowed for Iranian prisoners if family members find a hospital willing to carry out the procedure.
”When a prisoner is sent to the hospital, they bind you to the bed and multiple guards are there to make sure you couldn’t escape – two guards outside the room and another guard with a weapon inside the room,” said Rasoulof, who said he wasn’t allowed any visitors in hospital but acknowledged that “because I can attract the attention of the media, they are more careful with me.”
“After a while, one of the soldiers came and said ‘I heard you’re a film director, is it alright if we take a selfie together?’” said Rasoulof. The soldier then brought in copy of Rasoulof’s 2020 feature There Is No Evil – banned in the country – on a USB stick. Although the soldier had seen it already, he asked to watch it with the director, for the special experience of doing so alongside its creator.
This was then repeated by several other soldiers, who were on rotating shifts guarding Rasoulof. Speaking in Goteborg, the filmmaker described the strangeness of being “forced to watch the same movie seven nights in a row with prison guards who are supposed to be careful and guard me so I don’t escape the hospital. While we watched the movie they praised me for how well I made the film; while I’m sitting in the prison because I made said movie.”
The director emphasised that the story “might seem comic or funny; but at the moment it doesn’t feel funny.”
“Everything has changed”
Rasoulof received a standing ovation at the Goteborg screening of The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, which he presented alongside actress Setareh Maleki.
Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof receives a standing ovation at the Swedish premiere of his Oscar-nomated film ‘The Seed Of The Sacred Fig’ at Goteborg Film Festival.
— Screen International (@Screendaily) January 31, 2025
Rasoulof presented the film with actress Setareh Maleki. Both left Iran last year after the film was banned: pic.twitter.com/qMbjVBy1sK
Both Rasoulof and Maleki left Iran last year and are now residing in Germany. “After the creation of [2017 feature] A Man Of Integrity, I was forbidden from making films, and with the final verdict of the court of law I was forbidden from leaving the country and sentenced to eight years in prison,” Rasoulof told the Swedish audience in a post-screening interview with Goteborg artistic director Pia Lundberg. “That was when I made the decision to leave the country to free myself from the censorship and limitations of creating my films.”
“Everything has changed – it has been a big decision,” said Maleki of the decision to leave Iran. “I’ve been forced to leave my home country and I feel enormous sadness. But if time can go back, I would make the same decision.”
The Seed Of The Sacred Fig won the Special Jury Prize on debut in Cannes Competition last year. It is nominated for the best film not in the English language Bafta, and best international feature film Oscar, representing Germany in the latter.
Iranian creators were in focus this week at Goteborg, with Zar Amir Ebrahimi’s directorial debut Honor Of Persia winning the 400,000 SEK ($35,000) Tint Post-Production award in the Nordic Gateway industry platform. The German feature is produced by Mohammad Farokhmanesh, Jacob Jarek and Ebrahimi, for brave new work, Alambic Production and Profile Pictures.
The 400,000 SEK Post-Production award went to Miia Tervo’s Finnish title You Crazy Thing, produced by Marko Talli for Yellow Film & TV.
Goteborg runs until Sunday, February 2.
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