From the big-screen debut of a musical theatre classic to the long-awaited sequel to Ridley Scott's Roman epic, these are the films to see this month. The story behind The Seed of the Sacred Fig is almost as remarkable as what's on screen. Its writer-director, Mohammad Rasoulof, had served time in prison in Iran for speaking out against the regime, and so he shot the film in secret.
Shortly after it was chosen to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival , Rasoulof was sentenced to eight more years in prison, but he managed to flee the country, and made it to Cannes in time for the red-carpet premiere. The Seed of the Sacred Fig went on to be one of the festival's most acclaimed films. Its central characters, Iman (Misagh Zare) and Najmeh (Soheila Golestani), are determined to stay out of trouble after Iman is promoted to a well-paid government job, so tensions rise when their two daughters, Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki), show signs of rebelling.
"This searing domestic thriller deserves the widest audience possible," says Ryan Lattanzio in IndieWire . "Rasoulof crafts an extraordinarily gripping allegory about the corrupting costs of power and the suppression of women under a religious patriarchy that crushes the very people it claims to protect." Released on 27 November in the US The Piano Lesson is a family affair.
Adapted from August Wilson's Pulitzer prize-winning play, this supernatural drama is produced by Denzel Washington, directed by one of his sons, Ma.
