THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (2024) written, co-produced and directed by Mohammad Rasoulof won them Special Jury Prize of 2024 Cannes Int’l Film Festival. The film centers on a family thrust into the public eye when the father is appointed as an investigating judge in Tehran, as political unrest erupts in the streets. When the judge’s gun mysteriously disappears, he suspects his wife and daughters, imposing draconian measures that strain family ties.
We will discuss themes of paranoid psychology, psychological splitting, intergenerational trauma, and the implications of the title which refers to a species of fig that spreads by “wrapping itself around another tree and eventually strangling it.” From a psychodynamic perspective, the father’s psychological deterioration represents the internalization of state paranoia, where external political threats become projected onto intimate family relationships.
The film is particularly relevant as it was filmed in secret over 70 days from late December 2023 to March 2024 with real TikTok and Instagram videos of the bedlam interwoven with the narrative connecting individual psychological drama to actual political resistance movements in Iran.
Where to watch:
Hulu and Disney+ (subscriptions), AppleTV, Amazon Prime, and others
Discussants:
Jack Brennan, LMFT is an advanced candidate in psychoanalysis at the New Center, Los Angeles, and a licensed marriage and family therapist with a private practice in LA. Jack is a community sociologist by education and training in rural northern California and Vermont, and holds two masters degrees including practicing sociology and counseling psychology with an emphasis on community mental health. In addition to his work in LA, Jack is involved in Lacanian psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic formation at large — as a collaborator with SPIIRAL and training participant in Lacanian Psychoanalysis at the École Freudienne of Quebec, as well as a long term member and co-facilitator of the seminar series “Lacanian Thought in the Nonprofit and Public Clinic” in collaboration with the SF Bay Area Lacanian School. Jack was an MFT consortium MHSA award recipient in 2016 for culturally sensitive and dedicated work with underserved and marginalized populations in community mental health settings, and in 2024, was awarded the Elyn Saks scholarship from the New Center for his work in applications of psychoanalysis to the study and treatment of psychosis and severity.
Shahin Sakhi, MD, PhD is a psychiatrist in private practice, and an assistant clinical professor at UCLA psychiatry department from 2007 to 2024. He supervises therapists and psychiatrists internationally. He is a certified consultant from AK Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems. He has directed experiential group relations conferences on decision-making while dealing with biases and uncertainty. He also holds a graduate certificate from Human Complex Systems program at UCLA. He did his PhD studies in molecular neurobiology at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, studying genetic expressions during a specific neuronal death called neuronal apoptosis. He is interested in raising consciousness about the link between mental health, lifestyle, and global effort in transforming our socioeconomic life in a way that our children could enjoy life in a child centered culture of peace.
CE.
