84
Metascore
12 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Time OutPhil de SemlyenTime OutPhil de SemlyenIt clocks in at three hours but not a scene feels superfluous as its central quartet – dad, mum, two teenage daughters – squabble, fall out and finally implode in a subversive final act.
- 91IndieWireRyan LattanzioIndieWireRyan LattanzioRasoulof 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.
- 91The PlaylistGregory EllwoodThe PlaylistGregory EllwoodA victim of a politically motivated jail sentence for supporting the 2022 Masha Amini hijab protests, Rasoulof‘s latest feature will likely anger the Iranian government even more. Especially considering how brilliant “Sacred Fig” is at deconstructing the rampant injustice in the totalitarian state.
- 90ColliderChase HutchinsonColliderChase HutchinsonIt's a remarkable, revolutionary work of art. As precisely focused and tightly constructed as it is expansive in its aspirations, it’s a rallying cry for the irreplaceable value of artistic expression in a world that will repress it at all costs.
- 90The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerThe Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerAs Rasoulof intercuts real footage and fiction, we realize that what the family is going through is an extension of what the entire country has been facing.
- 90VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeThe situation Rasoulof depicts is hardly limited to Iran. There are echoes of Nazi Germany and modern-day China in the way average citizens submit, while the pressures to inform on one’s neighbors recall pre-perestroika Soviet policies. Rasoulof’s genius comes in focusing on how this dynamic plays out within a family, which makes it personal.
- 80The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawThe film may not be perfect, but its courage – and relevance – are beyond doubt.
- 80Vanity FairRichard LawsonVanity FairRichard LawsonThis is a sad and frightening story about a family’s undoing, but Rasoulof ekes out some hope too.
- 70The Film VerdictDeborah YoungThe Film VerdictDeborah YoungBuilding slowly, the story morphs into a thriller, and finally a sort of horror film, though these parts feel more like decent imitations than real genre work.
- 70Screen DailyJonathan RomneyScreen DailyJonathan RomneyThe film is uneven: gripping when it maps out psychological stresses in a claustrophobic domestic setting, less so in the final stretches when it incongruously morphs into a women-in-peril thriller.