Mohammad Rasoulof fled Iran to debut his film in Cannes. 'I have many more stories to tell,' he says

Mohammad Rasoulof was facing eight years in prison — and likely more considering the uncompromising nature of his latest film, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” — when he decided to flee Iran.

His films and statements criticizing government-sanctioned violence against protesters had already earned him a long string of prison sentences, filmmaking bans, travel restrictions and the confiscation of his passport in 2017. Leaving his native country meant embarking on a life of exile, not to mention a risky escape on foot across the mountainous borderland.

Two weeks after the harrowing escape, Rasoulof arrived at the Cannes Film Festival with a completed film. At a Cannes where several filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola and Kevin Costner have been praised for investing their own money into their films, Rasoulof has put far more on the line: To debut “The Seed of the Sacred Fig," Rasoulof has risked his life.

“I have many more stories to tell, many more narratives to create and films to make,” said Rasoulof, speaking Thursday through an interpreter at Cannes’ Palais des Festivals. “That’s what persuaded me to leave Iran. I had to go on with this mission. I feel that my mission is to connect the audiences of the world to these stories, to this Iranian narrative. This is my plan for the coming years.”