The Seed of the Sacred Fig is the rare political thriller that functions both as a tense family drama and a bold statement on Iran’s oppressive statehood. Following special investigator Iman (Missagh Zagreb) and his family—his wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) and two daughters Resvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki)—Fig sees the Iranian government crackdown on riots about the real beating-induced stroke Mahsa Amini suffered in 2022 for not wearing her hijab. While the Iranian government claimed her death was unrelated, the public, eyewitnesses, and regime critics insisted she was killed because of the police’s brutal punishment. While Resvan and Sana recognize the injustices, Najmeh (at least initially) and Iman oppose their viewpoints. In only two weeks in his new position, Iman deteriorates from an honorable judge and loving family man to a distant, cold government pawn that will preserve the Iranian governmental and societal structures at any cost. As their world deteriorates, so does the family—loyalty and disloyalty to Iran and God are all that matters in the end, at least for a power-crazed father.

Director-writer Mohammad Rasoulof knows precisely how to humanize and personalize larger social-political issues with a disguised simplicity. Fig’s central family represents four different kinds of people existing under such repressive circumstances. Iman represents the loyal, unquestioning subservience needed for such ruthless governments to function. Though initially reluctant—“I can’t. I have served honorably for 20 years”—he quickly evolves: “The bastards [protesters]. We’ll get rid of them. They take advantage of the system and insult it…. Whoever confronts God does it at their own risk.” In two weeks, Iman goes from silently resisting Iran’s oppression to fully aiding and believing in them. As a traditionally husband-abiding wife, Najmeh represents the ignorant upper echelons of Iranian society, believing everything she sees on TV and that Iman tells her.

As she and her kids watch footage of Amini’s beating and death, where news outlets claim the death and punishment are unrelated, she rebuts her children’s complaints: “People have strokes every day. Is it the regime’s fault?” She believes in narratives fed to her by the government because it’s still better than what she grew up with—“you’d be more grateful if you knew your father could be like mine, gambling and partying is life away”—even if it’s far from perfect. With Resvan representing the vocal but less actionable activist and Sana the young, dumb, reckless, willing-to-risk-it-all-for-freedom activist, the family splits in two. As actual footage from past Iranian protests flutters throughout, the family only becomes more inwardly hostile—making for a calamitous showdown between the kids and their father (the people v. Iranian government). With questions of news legitimacy, loyalty vs. freedom, complicated arguments from characters’ desiring the same ends through different means, and human resilience even against our own flesh and blood, Fig pushes the boundaries of what defines a peaceful vs. chaotically fatal existence and what people can or cannot (won’t) do to achieve the littlest of freedoms like being able to walk publicly without getting maimed or killed.

The film could be cut down by 45 minutes, as various scenes are either slightly too long or really dragged out—we don’t need to cut back and forth between a buckshot victim and Najmeh tending her wounds six times!—and the stakes higher if the familial focus wasn’t just on a stolen gun amidst political backlash. Nevertheless, with sweeping messages rivaled by pristine cinematography, tortured performances, and a consistent distrustful tone, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a robust recent history-fiction drama, demonstrating what it’s like to live in current-day Iran—governmental cruelty, blinding loyalty, and thoughtless slaughtering are all familiar historical patterns.

Opens Friday, 12/27 @ Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square Cinema, and AMC Boston Common