Mohammad Rasoulof reflected on his decision to flee Iran at the Cannes Film Festival press conference for his latest film, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig ,” on Saturday. Rasoulof received news of the charges against him in the final weeks of shooting, but decided to risk arrest and finish the film before leaving the country. “Obviously, there was tremendous pressure on my shoulders,” Rasoulof said of the decision.
“I kept thinking, well if I’m arrested while making the film, I’ll spend at least five years in prison. And then obviously, I knew this film would lead to other charges against me.” He said he “counted on the slow pace of the legal administration” in order to wrap the project, and contacted his colleagues abroad to make sure they could bring the film to the finish line in the event of his arrest.
Then, he was made aware that the secret services in Iran were looking to arrest other members of the “Seed of the Sacred Fig” team, not just him. “I therefore had to make a decision in just a few hours. I had to say to myself, ‘Well do I want to be in prison, or should I leave geographic Iran and join the cultural Iran that exists beyond it’s borders?’ And I opted for the second possibility,” he said.
“It took me two hours to make the decision. I walked around, I paced around my house, I said goodbye to the plants that I loved. It’s not an easy decision to make.
It still isn’t easy even to talk about it with you.” In terms of how he wa.
