Movie trends fluctuate over time and 2024 seems to have been a particularly fruitful year for the French film industry. While box office revenues in the United States are still well below pre-pandemic levels, ticket sales in France had largely recovered by the end of 2023 and continued to grow last year. This achievement is partially owed to France’s love of cinema. According to Statistica, in a survey from January 2024, 16.7% of French respondents reported going to the movies at least once per week, and roughly half claimed to go every month. Also at play, however, are subsidies aimed at promoting the diversity and richness of the septième art.
Created under France’s Ministry of Culture in 1946, the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC) fosters the growth and success of France’s cinematic arts industry, from training to creation to distribution. Funding is provided based on a variety of selection criteria. For example, subsidies are given to projects deemed as culturally significant, such as last summer’s 3-hour epic adventure adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ Le Comte de Monte Cristo.
International co-productions also receive funding and foreign filmmakers receive financial incentives to use French subcontractors or to film on French soil. Last year, of the 92 films submitted to the Oscars for Best International Feature Film, 25 were either French productions or co-productions.
The 2025 Academy Awards will likely honor a similar number of films with French fingerprints. I’ve had the good fortune to attend two such contenders: The Seed of the Sacred Fig, a German and French co-production, filmed in Iran; and, Flow, an animated feature film, co-produced in Latvia, France and Belgium. I found both to be exceptional, demonstrating not only France’s significant contribution to international cinema but also the quality of its cinematic selection process.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Secretly filmed in Tehran in early 2024, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a political thriller from Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof. The story takes place during the weeks that followed the nonfictional death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died in police custody after being beaten and arrested for not wearing her hijab properly. Amini’s inexcusable death sparked the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran, as tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets. In response, the Iranian regime reacted swiftly and severely. Human rights organizations estimate that more than 500 demonstrators were killed and thousands arrested.
While The Seed of the Sacred Fig is fiction, it incorporates numerous clips of actual cellphone footage, captured during the protests. The action centers on an upper-middle-class family of four: an investigator for the Revolutionary Court named Iman, his wife, and two daughters. Rasoulof conceived of the project while he himself was in prison for criticizing the Iranian government. He wanted to examine the psychology of people who carry out the extraordinarily repressive dictates of Iran’s theocratic regime.
In producing the film, Rasoulof directly violated the terms of his prison release which forbid him from working or from leaving Iran. He, his cast, and his crew took enormous risks to carry out the project, living with the constant fear that they’d be discovered. Iranian authorities learned of the film’s existence only after it was selected to compete at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Members of the cast and crew were interrogated by Iranian officials who pressured them to convince Rasoulof to withdraw from the festival. After refusing to do so, Rasoulof learned from his lawyer that he’d been sentenced to 8 years of prison, a flogging, fines, and confiscation of property. He says he had 2 hours to decide whether or not to flee.
Other than one Instagram post sharing a video of snow-capped mountains, the courageous director doesn’t share details about his difficult and dangerous 28-day escape to Germany. Rasoulof says his flight had nothing to do with making it to Cannes. Yet, ten days after his arrival in Europe, The Seed of the Sacred Fig premiered at the French film festival, receiving a 12-minute standing ovation. Walking Cannes’ red carpet, Rasoulof held up photos of lead actors Missagh Zareh and Soheila Golestani, who have not been able to leave Iran and are accused of spreading propaganda against the regime and conspiracy against national security.
As much as I love France’s submission for Best International Feature Film, Emilia Perez, if there’s only one film you see between now and the Academy Awards, this should be it. Rasoulof’s nail-biting thriller is much more than a political film about contemporary Iran. It examines universal themes relating to institutional violence, the struggle between tradition and modernity, and perhaps most importantly, the circumstances that cause law-abiding people to submit to the abhorrent orders of authoritarians even at the expense of their own humanity.
Flow
Flow is an animated tale about a cat who’s home is destroyed by a flood. In order to survive, the cat has to team up with a variety of different animals. Each creature brings its own unique qualities and skill sets to bear. The Latvian director, Gints Zilbalodis, wrote the story, created the animated storyboard, and composed the music for the film. Zilbalodis, who is only 31, says the film is a reflection of his personal struggles. Prior to making Flow, he had always worked alone, but given the scope of his new project, he knew he’d have to enlist the help of others.
Interestingly, Zilbalodis turned to France where he found additional funding for his feature-length film as well as a healthy crop of talented young animators that were eager to contribute. While most of the film’s components—concept art, lighting, modeling, colors, pre and post-production, music, and editing—were done in Latvia, the French team handled animating the characters and adding the sound effects. Animators in Belgium also worked on the film.
Flow is Zilbalodis’ first film to receive outside financing. Production companies were willing to back him after his self-funded short, Away, won Best Feature Film at Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2019. It’s remarkable to think that Zilbalodis single-handedly made every aspect of Away without help. Check out the trailer here.
Even with funding, however, the budget for Flow was tight. Zilbalodis says they had to be very careful to avoid changes once the film went into production. The scope of the project and size of the production team meant that he needed to be far more intentional with his work than he’d been when working alone. Yet, Zilbalodis says he didn’t want the end result to be too polished. He wanted rough edges, preserving some of the rawness found in his homemade productions. The young director regularly traveled between Latvia and the French studio in Marseilles to walk the shop floor, so to speak. As a result, Flow embodies the unvarnished effect Zilbalodis was going for, yet his crew produced very few scenes that were later deleted.
There is no dialogue in Flow. All of the characters are animals. Zilbalodis and his co-animators went to great lengths to ensure that body language and facial expressions, which help convey the narrative, are in keeping with each animal’s natural behaviors. Zilbalodis is careful to avoid simplistic messaging or filling in too many details. He wants audience members to think for themselves. Rather than providing obvious answers to certain questions like “why is there a flood?” or “where are the people?”, his scenes provide hints about what might have happened. It’s up to the viewer’s imagination to create a definitive backstory if they feel compelled to do so.
As with most exceptional art, there’s a tenderness and vulnerability to Flow that leaves a strong imprint on the heart of the observer. Zilbalodis’ genius lies in his ability to take a simple narrative—one that is captivating to children—and render it in a way that holds the attention of adults. At its core, Flow is a hopeful story about learning how to live with one’s fears and accepting them. Each individual will find their own way of adapting. Few things in life are formulaic and yet certain tenacious proclivities, like the will to survive, reassuringly bolster our existence.
Weigh In
If you’ve seen either of these films, or if you see them at a later date, I’d love to read your impressions in the comments at the end of this post.
Well, those two movies certainly seem as different from each other as it’s possible to get. You have eclectic tastes.
It’s hard to judge a movie one hasn’t seen, but while Seed of the Sacred Fig seems to capture well the clastrophobic and paranoid atmosphere of life under the Iranian theocracy, I wonder if the choice of focus will be confusing to Westerners. Rasoulof may be fascinated by the psychology of the regime’s enforcers, but gangster-states have always been able to find people to carry out the hands-on thuggery they need to stay in power, especially religious states which can offer the will of God as a justification for acts normally felt as morally abhorrent. I would have thought the experiences and thinking of those who resist and suffer for it would be more interesting, especially since Rasoulof has direct experience of this to draw on. The fact that he was threatened with severe punishment for making the film, and that two of the actors are still facing trumped-up charges in Iran, highlights the miserable nature of the system under which that country is still being suffocated.
I could not help wondering if the film actually shows the interrogations of political prisoners, including the savage beatings, rapes, etc which are standard procedure. It might have made it a bit more challenging to humanize the protagonist who is part of the system.
It’s curious that the French version of the title has figuier sauvage, “wild fig tree”, whereas the English has “sacred”. The Persian and German titles both use words equivalent to “sacred”.
Flow looks visually fascinating and original. It’s refreshing that it bases the characters’ behavior on that of actual animals rather than just making them human characters in animal form à la Disney. From the scenes in the trailer it seems it succeeds in its ambition to tell the story purely through behavior and expressions while remaining true to what these animals are really like. I’m not put off by the fact that they sometimes do things that seem un-animalistically smart. Many animals are smarter than we give them credit for, and these creatures have presumably lived their lives in a world with no people to take care of them, surviving by their own wits.
While you say Zilbalodis doesn’t focus on questions like what happened to the humans in this world, the trailer is rather tantalizing, giving us surviving relics of things that don’t exist in reality at all — the giant cat statue, for example. It’s hard to imagine any catastrophe that would eliminate all the humans on Earth but leave the animals (humans are smarter than animals and would tend to hunt down and eat all the animals before disappearing). And the “whale” at the end looks drastically different from a real whale, with tentacles and extra flippers. Even if this is millions of years in the future, I can’t imagine evolution doing that, nor mutations from radiation. Genetic engineering, maybe?
Thanks for making us aware of these.
I think you’re right Infidel, most American viewers will see the father of the family as a heartless villain rather than a product of years of indoctrination. The film also gives insight into resisters who are brutally punished by the regime. There are no prolonged scenes of torture but you know that it happens and that people are being put to death simply for voicing their opinions. The film shows that not every resister is treated in a consistent fashion. So one protestor may be released a day after being apprehended while another goes to prison and another is killed in the street. It will be interesting to learn the fate of the two lead actors who have not yet been sentenced. They are popular media figures, so perhaps this is why the regime has not yet declared their punishment.
Regarding wild vs.sacred fig: I looked into that too and thought “sauvage” was the more accurate of the two translations but sacred sounds more dramatic. It’s interesting to note that “wild figs” wrap their vines around trees and eventually strangle their host. This is the symbolism behind the film’s title.
You are such an observer! I’m glad you watched the trailers. I didn’t understand the gussied-up whale either. In fact, I was wishing it was just a normal whale when watching the movie. However, given your comment and after listening to interviews with the director, I wonder if they changed the whale’s physical appearance because Zibalodis wanted to depict the idea that there are several ways in which species and individuals adapt to pressures. Just a thought.
To say I have eclectic tastes is putting it mildly. I thrive on experiencing new things, from food to music to film… Although I am rather stuck on France when it comes to foreign travel. 🙂
Good tips. Merci Carole…
Tout le plaisir est pour moi. Bonne semaine mon ami.
Ben on va essayer hein?
These look amazing. As a PG13-type viewer, I’d like to see “Flow.” When Netflix still sent us DVDs, I got to see everything eventually. Nowadays, I can’t figure out streaming. And I haven’t been to a theater to see a film in years. Guess I better do something about that.
I happen to live within walking distance to two theaters (6 screens) that regularly show international and independent films. For a modest sum of $160/year, both my husband and I can see movies on Tuesdays at either theater for no charge. The membership quickly pays for itself and makes sure we get a nice walk together on a regular basis. Hence, I consume more movies at the theater than I do at home.
I admire your lack of connectivity.
And I envy your easy access.
Fascinating, Carol. Flow looked familiar, so I checked, and sure enough, it won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Motion Picture this year. I’m betting it will win an Oscar as well. The beauty and creativity in the trailer alone make me want to see it.
As for Seed of the Sacred Fig, it is clearly an important film. The more attention that is paid to events in Iran, the better it will be for the people living there under such oppression. I hope you’re mistaken that most American viewers will miss the director’s message. More importantly, I hope the two stars are safe!
How lucky you are to have easy access to such fine films!
True Annie. If the Golden Globes are any indicator, many of the films I’m rooting for will do well at the Oscars. I also wanted to see the Brutalist but it appears to have left town. Last Friday, I saw France’s most recent Le Comte de Monte Cristo. It was spectacular too! And yes, I am exceedingly lucky to live so close to two venues that have enough private funding to show films that relatively few Americans have access too.