The career of director Mohammad Rasoulof has been interrupted by jail sentences for his filmmaking, deemed “propaganda against the system” by the Iranian theocracy. His latest gripping drama takes its title from a type of plant that flourishes by strangling a host tree – an unambiguous metaphor for the public protests against the Islamic State in Iran.
Rasoulof’s new film is, like many of his previous projects, a complex thriller and piece of docu-fiction. It was filmed in secrecy earlier this year in and around Tehran. Under threat of another prison term, Rasoulof fled in exile to Germany, where post-production was completed.