‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ wins Arab Critics’ Award for EU Films

French-German-Iranian production The Seed of the Sacred Fig, from exiled director Mohammad Rasoulof, has won the top prize for Best Film at the Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films.

The prize was announced at Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival and Rasoulof’s drama was picked from among 22 European productions.

The Seed of the Sacred Figpremiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year, where it won a special jury prize, and is Germany’s official entry for the 2025 Academy Awards in the Best International Feature category.

Rasoulof clandestinely fled Iran two weeks before the premiere on the Croisette. He did so after receiving an eight-year prison sentence for standing up to the brutal theocratic regime. His nail-biting escape led him to Germany to finish the edit of the film, and when the director showed up in Cannes, the response was overwhelming.

The Grand Theatre Lumière gave him a moving and lengthy 15 minute plus standing ovation, one which would have carried on had Rasoulof not taken the microphone to thank all those who made the film possible – including the ones who could not make it. He was referring to many of his crew, as well as his two lead actors Misagh Zare and Soheila Golestani.

The film is set during the 2022 protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death, and centres on a conservative family of four that breaks apart during the Women Life Freedom protests. It’s a thriller-infused allegory that goes from being a claustrophobic domestic drama to a horror-shaded psychodrama that exposes Iran’s theocracy as one built on violence and paranoia.

The Arab Critics’ Awards for European Films was launched in 2019 by European Film Promotion (EFP) and the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) to promote film diversity across Europe and to boost industry interest in the Arab region in outstanding European films.  

Previous Arab Critics’ winners include Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves (2023), Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO (2022), Péter Kerekes’ 107 Mothers (2021), Christian Petzold’s Undine (2020) and Teona Strugar Mitevska’s God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya (2019).