'The Seed Of The Sacred Fig' Blu-Ray Review - A Towering Iranian Drama That Grabs You And Refuses To Let Go
Shot entirely in secret, Mohammad Rasoulof's award-winning thriller, THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG, centers on a family thrust into the public eye when Iman is appointed as an investigating judge in Tehran. As political unrest erupts in the streets, Iman realizes that his job is even more dangerous than expected, making him increasingly paranoid and distrustful, even of his own wife Najmeh and daughters Sana and Rezvan.
For in-depth thoughts on The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, please see my colleague Matt Minton's review from its original theatrical release here.
Video Quality
Decal Releasing brings The Seed Of The Sacred Fig to Blu-Ray with a fetching 1080p video presentation. The presentation delivers an impressive amount of depth to the screen. Black levels are largely deep with no serious instances of digital noise. Fleeting signs of banding and other discrete digital hiccups show up in the transfer, but it is not a dealbreaker. The image is crisp and clear as we see all the efforts put into bringing this gorgeous, haunting film to the screen. The production design and the clothing impress with exquisite textural details. Flesh tones are natural and consistent with ideal detail present in close-ups. The color palette leads a bit on the cooler side of the spectrum with very little in the way of vibrant colors poking through, yet every hue maintains a fine sense of accuracy to them. The label has done a good job with this one.
Audio Quality
This Blu-Ray comes with a favorable DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track in the original Persian that executes all of the sonic details with care. Karzan Mahmood's score establishes the mood of the story as it flows from the speakers with crisp fidelity. Environmental sounds enrich the surround speakers effectively. Ambient sounds are deftly deployed in the rear channels for a fully immersive experience. Dialogue presents clearly without being burdened by any competing elements. There are a handful of thrilling moments that add texture to the low end, but it is not an action-packed movie by any means. The audio track serves this one quite well. Optional English, English SDH, and Spanish subtitles are provided.
Special Features
The Making of The Seed of the Sacred Fig:
A four-minute piece that delves into how director Mohammad Rasoulof made this film in secret.
Trailer (2:12)
Final Thoughts
The Seed Of The Sacred Fig is a towering drama that shows the pervasive nature of authoritarianism within a family context. The film is quite lengthy, but it uses every minute of its runtime to build up the tension to nearly unbearable levels. Every performance is perfectly dialed into the appropriate wavelength for maximum impact, and Mohammad Rasoulof orchestrates the entire affair with a masterful hand. Decal Releasing has released a Blu-Ray featuring a fantastic A/V presentation but very little in the way of supplemental features. This is one of the better films to emerge out of 2024, and it should not be missed. Recommended
The Seed Of The Sacred Fig is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Decal Releasing has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Geek Tyrant
an hour ago
- Geek Tyrant
Review: BRING HER BACK Is a Brutal and Devestating Descent into Hell — GeekTyrant
Bring Her Back isn't just another dark horror film, it's a pit of despair with no rope to climb out. Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou, this is a horror experience that doesn't entertain so much as it assaults. From the first uneasy moments to its soul-splintering finale, it drags you by the hand into absolute darkness and never once pretends there's light at the end. I walked out of this movie feeling devastated and sad, like I needed therapy and a very long shower. The story centers on a brother and sister who are placed in foster care and move into a remote home, only to discover their new guardian, played with chilling brilliance by Sally Hawkins, is out of her goddamn mind. She's involved in some seriously evil witchcraft and what unfolds is a nightmare about grief and the horrific cost of trying to undo death as she is going through a twisted process to bring her dead daughter back to life, and what follows is so grotesque and hopeless. Let's be clear, this movie is well-crafted. The Philippou brothers have a sharp eye and a knack for tension and telling horror stories. This one was seriously suffocating, it was too damn bleak, and unnecessarily soul crushing for me. There are moments that felt mean-spirited and cruel, and it was just just so hard to get through. Hawkins gives a masterclass performance in quiet, maternal dread. She's terrifying not because she rages, but because she calmly, lovingly leads children into hellish ruin. It's the kind of performance that makes your stomach knot. The film is effective in every technical sense, but that's also what makes it so hard to endure. There's no humor, no relief, no levity no hope. Nothing to ease the horrific madness of it all. It just gets darker and darker as it drags you deeper and deeper into hell. The body horror is shocking, but not just because of the visuals. It's the fact that the violence is inflicted on children. One in particular is only ten years old! And not in a cheap shock-value way, this is slow, methodical, and cruel. It doesn't feel like horror for catharsis; it feels like horror for punishment. Watching Bring Her Back didn't feel like entertainment. It's not that I was scared, it's that it was comeletely devestating. I've seen countless horror films, and I usually love getting my mind messed with, but this one didn't just mess with me, it made me feel sick. If you've ever lost someone close to you, there are scenes in this film that will gut you in ways you're not prepared for, and once it starts tearing into you, it doesn't stop. Maybe that's the point. Maybe the movie is meant to be this nihilistic. Maybe it's making a statement about grief, trauma, and how trying to reverse death can make monsters out of the well-meaning. But just because something is effective doesn't mean it's enjoyable. This is a very well made film. It is also joyless, cruel, and hollow. It's a well-executed punch to the soul that punches you from beginning to end. This movie beat the hell out of me! I won't call Bring Her Back a bad film. It's not. It's one of the most extreme examinations of loss and suffering I've seen in horror. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone I know because I want to keep my friends and a movie like this would destroy many of them. Bring Her Back is a slow burial that is insanely jacked up and there is no redeeming value to the story. If that sounds like your kind of horror, good luck!
Forbes
3 hours ago
- Forbes
Why Does Maje From Netflix Hit ‘A Widow's Game' Look So Familiar?
Ivanna Baquero in "A Widow's Game." Ivana Baquero — the star of Netflix's No. 1 movie A Widow's Game — got her showbiz break in 2006 thanks a lead role in a Guillermo del Toro classic. What else has she starred in? Baquero stars as Maje in the A Widow's Game, which is currently the No. 1 film on the streamer's top 10 list of movies on the platform in the U.S. Netflix reported Tuesday that A Widow's Game also earned spots on Top 10 most-watched movie lists in 90 countries worldwide, amassing 15.4 million views since its debut on the streaming service on Friday, May 30. A Widow's Game is based on the real-life case known as "The Black Widow of Patraix.' The official summary for the film reads, 'August 2017. In a parking lot in Valencia appears the body of a man, stabbed seven times. Everything points to a crime of passion. Ivanna Baquero in "A Widow's Game." 'The Homicide Group of the city, with a veteran inspector at the head, starts an investigation against the clock that soon leads them to a suspect that no one expected: Maje, the young widow, sweet and serene, who had been married to the victim for less than a year.' Born June 11, 1994, in Barcelona, Spain, Baquero made her screen debut in a supporting role in the 2004 Spanish-UK supernatural thriller Romasanta, which was followed by roles in two more feature films and two TV movies. Baquero's breakthrough role, however, happened in 2006 when del Toro cast the young actor in the lead role in a film that went on to receive six Oscar nominations at the 2007 Academy Awards. Set in 1944, Pan's Labyrinth stars Ivana Baquero as Ofelia, a 10-year-old girl who moves with her ailing, pregnant mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil) to the Spanish countryside to live with Carmen's new husband, the brutal military dictator Captain Vidal (Sergi López). As Ofelia befriends a mythical creature known as the Faun (Doug Jones), she learns that she is a reincarnated princess who is saddled with completely three daunting tasks before she can once again assume the throne. Jones also plays the haunting creature the Pale Man in the film. Director Guillermo Del Toro and cast members Maribel Verdun, Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi Lopez ... More and Alfonso Cuaron at the photocall of "El laberinto del fauno" during the 59th Cannes Film Festival. (Photo by Eddy LEMAISTRE/Corbis via Getty Images) Produced in Spain, Pan's Labyrinth was nominated for six Oscars in 2007, including Best Foreign Language Film, Best Original Score for Javier Navarette and Best Original Screenplay for Guillermo del Toro. Pan's Labyrinth won Oscars in the three other categories it was nominated in, including Best Makeup, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction. Baquero was also honored for her role as Ofelia, winning the Best New Actress honor at the Goya Awards, which is Spain's equivalent to the Oscars. Baquero also won a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA and was nominated for Best Young Actress at the 2007 Critics Choice Awards. Based on the best-selling The Sword of Shannara Trilogy of books by Terry Brooks, The Shannara Chronicles stars Ivana Baquero as Eretria opposites future Elvis and Dune: Part Two star Austin Butler. In the series, Eretria is a human who teams with the Elven Princess Amberle (Poppy Drayton) and a half-human/half-elf, Wil (Butler) to fend off demons from taking over the environs known as the Four Lands. Created by Wednesday creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, The Shannara Chronicles ran for two seasons on MTV from 2016 to 2017. The series also starred James Remar (Dexter) and John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings/Indiana Jones series). Alejandra Onieva and Ivanna Baquero in "High Seas." A Netflix original Spanish series, High Seas stars Ivana Baquero as Eve Villanueva and Alejandra Onieva as her sister, Carolina, who while on a luxury cruise from Spain to Brazil in the 1940s investigate a series of mysterious murders aboard the ship. High Seas ran for three seasons on Netflix from 2019 to 2020. The first and second seasons each featured eight episodes, while the third season concluded the series with six episodes. Ivana Baquero stars opposite Evil Dead icon Bruce Campbell in the horror comedy Black Friday as Marnie, one of a small group of a large retail toy store who must fight off blood-thirsty shoppers infected with a parasites as the annual day-after-Thanksgiving sale gets underway. Black Friday also stars Devon Sawa (the first movie in the Final Destination franchise) and Michael Jai White (The Dark Knight). A Widow's Tale, starring Ivana Baquero, is now streaming exclusively on Netflix.
Geek Tyrant
4 hours ago
- Geek Tyrant
Trailer For Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell Time-Bending Romance A BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY — GeekTyrant
The first trailer for Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell new film A Big Bold Beautiful Journey has arrived, and it looks like a beautifully made film with the makings of a quietly devastating, visually rich, emotionally charged fantasy about love, memory, and second chances. The film follows two lonely strangers, Sarah and David, who meet at a wedding and soon find themselves swept into a surreal, time-traveling adventure. But this isn't some bombastic sci-fi spectacle. It's intimate. Personal. They're not trying to save the world—they're just trying to understand their own. The official synopsis reads: 'What if you could open a doorway and walk through it and re-live a defining moment from your past? Sarah (Robbie) and David (Farrell) are both single strangers who meet at a mutual friend's wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on A Big Bold Beautiful Journey – a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live important moments from their respective pasts, illuminating how they got to where they are in the present… and possibly getting a chance to alter their futures.' There's definitely a magical realism vibe to all of this with dreamlike moments, gentle sci-fi elements, and a focus on emotional truth. The movie is being directed byKogonada and he's new to this territory, with Columbus and After Yang , he's shown a ability to mix aching humanity with clean, contemplative aesthetics. Colin Farrell, speaking with Collider, described the project like this: 'It's kind of a love story, but it's not a very typical one. It's definitely magical realism. It's grounded in a world that we recognize, but it also is removed enough into the world of fantastical that it goes into these kinds of whimsical places. 'It's a story about being revisited by, but also having the opportunity to revisit certain moments in your past that were very formative.' He continued: 'It's about two people at a stage in their lives — Margot [Robbie]'s character and my character — that find themselves at an emotional crossroads where they're not living terrible lives, but life hasn't really worked out for them. 'They're both terrible at relationships. Neither have been able to find a moment's joy in relationships or companionship. And they begin to find that through each other, as a result of this one night where they go on this fantastical journey and get to see from an objective perspective these moments in their lives that, as I said, were very formative, and get to take accountability for times where they hurt people.' Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think! The movie is set to hit theaters on September 19th, 2025
