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Cannes-Bound Iranian Film ‘Woman and Child’ Sparks Controversy, Prompting ‘Seed of the Sacred Fig’ Director to Intervene (EXCLUSIVE)
Cannes-bound Iranian film 'Mother and Child' by Saeed Roustayee is sparking controversy before it screens, prompting Mohammad Rasoulof to intervene.
Even before Saeed Roustayee’s “Woman and Child” premieres at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, the Iranian director’s new work is sparking heated controversy that reflects deep soul searching within the turbulent country’s filmmaking community. The upswell of feelings and opinions that “Woman and Child” is already eliciting, sight unseen, has prompted fellow Iranian helmer Mohammad Rasoulof, who escaped from Iran to Europe in May 2024 after receiving a jail sentence from the country’s authorities for making “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” to come out strongly in Roustayee’s defense. This statement was a reference to Amir Jadidi (the lead actor in A Hero), who had also played in another film that was pure government propaganda — a project that had been very openly and directly funded and produced by the security apparatus of the Islamic Republic.
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