Mohammad Rasoulof, president of the New Currents jury at this year’s Busan International Film Festival, said that Germany’s selection of his latest work, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, as this year’s Oscars submission should offer hope to other filmmakers working under strict censorship conditions.
Rasoulof is currently living in exile in Germany after fleeing Iran on the eve of this year’s Cannes film festival – where The Seed Of The Sacred Fig screened in competition and won a Special Award – after Iranian authorities sentenced him to eights years imprisonment for making the film without a permit.
Germany subsequently selected the film as its submission for the Best International Feature category of the Oscars. There was zero chance that Iran’s government-influenced Oscars selection committee would have chosen the film.
“The investors of the film were German, and the producer was from Germany, so although the film is Iranian, the German delegation accepted the film,” Rasoulof said at the New Currents jury press conference in Busan today. “This has great meaning as it shows they are opening their arms and understanding of other cultures and human expression.”
He added: “The selection of this film should give great hope for other filmmakers in Iran making films under censorship. There are also other films submitted to the Oscars that are chosen by the regimes of other countries. So, we hope the films [that they wouldn’t select] also have a chance to go to the Oscars.”
Rasoulof is overseeing a jury that also include Korean director Lee Myung Se (Nowhere To Hide, The Killers), Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu (Better Days, The Breaking Ice), Indian actress Kani Kusruti (Girls Will Be Girls, All We Imagine As Light) and Vanja Kaludjercic, festival director of International Film Festival of Rotterdam (IFFR).
Lee talked about the current crisis in Korean cinema, which has struggled to return to its former strengths in the post-pandemic era, explaining that it would influence his judgement of the New Currents films. “It’s not an issue of quantity or quality but internal issues that have brought about the crisis in Korean cinema – not just in Korea but throughout the world,” Lee said. “So, I will be looking for directors who make films that are really films.”
Zhou first attended Busan in 2010 as a fledging actress when her debut film, Zhang Yimou’s Under The Hawthorn Tree, screened as the festival’s opening film. In the intervening years, the political relationship between China and South Korea has been strained, but Zhou said she could see it brightening in future: “2025 is a year of cultural exchange between Korea and China so I believe the relationship will only get better going forward.”
Kusruti stars in another film that has been a subject of Oscars controversy – Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light – which India didn’t choose as its Oscars submission, despite the film winning the Grand Prix in Cannes. While the film made the shortlist of France’s Oscars submission, it eventually wasn’t selected by that country either. Rather than talk about these decisions, Kusruti praised the current diversity of Indian films.
“Indian cinema is going through a very good time now – from commercial to independent, all categories are doing well,” Kusruti said. “We have new styles of filmmaking, and filmmakers are fine-tuning their craft in acting, writing and cinematography. Looking at where I come from – Kerala – commercial films are really amazing and there so many cinephiles dedicated to cinema culture there.”
Kaludjercic agreed saying that IFFR has had an embarrassment of riches to chose from in India in recent years and observed that IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund was an early supporter of All We Imagine As Light.
“From every region, we see not only different languages and cultures but also different approaches to cinematic language,” Kaludjercic said. “So much so, that the language of cinema that surprises us the most nowadays is coming from India. There are so many more Indian films we would like to show but can’t fit into the program.”
Busan’s New Currents competition showcases the first or second features of up-and-coming Asian directors. The two winning directors are each awarded cash prizes of $30,000.
