Germany has entered a film into the Oscar race that could hardly be more un-German: It is set in Iran, was filmed in Iran, only Farsi is spoken, and the actors, director and screenwriter are Iranian. But two loopholes were exploited.
The film that will represent Germany in the 2025 Oscar race is called دانهی انجیر معابد. This is not a joke, but the decision of the selection committee at German Films, the export organization for German cinema. The film is set in Iran, was shot entirely in Iran, all of the actors are Iranian, and the screenwriter and composer, cameraman and director are also Iranian. Not a word of German is spoken in the film, only Farsi.
“Seed of the Sacred Fig Tree” – the title under which the film will be released in cinemas in December – premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and, in the opinion of most observers, deserved the Palme d’Or, but was fobbed off with a “Special Prize” by the jury headed by American filmmaker Greta Gerwig, while the Palme d’Or went to a US film.
It goes without saying that Iran did not nominate The Fig Tree for an Oscar; the film was shot clandestinely and the director is facing a long prison sentence, which is why he fled to Germany. Mohammad Rasoulof’s film is about the devout lawyer Iman, who was promoted to investigating judge at the Revolutionary Court – just in the days of the major street protests following the death of Mahsa Amini.
When he was promoted, he was also given a gun. But one morning it disappeared from his bedside table. Only three people could be the thief: his wife or one of his two daughters. All of them deny taking the gun. Now Iman begins to use the interrogation methods that he usually uses on arrested demonstrators on his family.
All of this makes “The Fig Tree” one of the best films of the year, but still far from being a German one. Or so you would think. But there are two loopholes. The first states that the “nationality” of a film can also be determined by its financiers. And indeed, among the seven producers of the film, in addition to three Iranians and three Frenchmen, there is also a German, Mani Tilgner from the Hamburg company Runway Pictures.
The second loophole can be found in the rules of the Academy Awards. They differentiate between English-language films (which compete for the big Oscar) and non-English-language films, which are all put in the “Best International Film” category, formerly known as the Foreign Language Oscar. In 2015, Sebastian Schipper’s “Victoria” was excluded from the Oscar race because (allegedly) more than 50 percent of the dialogue was spoken in English. The rule, however, is that in “international” films, at least half of the dialogue must be in a language other than English.
This is the second loophole: there is no necessary connection between the country registering and the language of the film. Iceland could register a film in Serbo-Croatian for the Oscars. Or China one in Esperanto. Or Argentina one in Tibetan. Of course, none of these countries would come up with such a far-fetched idea. Only Germany registers a film in Iranian.
There is, however, a comparable case: This year the English entered “The Zone of Interest”, in which almost only German is spoken, as “their” film for the Foreign Language Oscars – and won. The comparison with “Fig Tree” is still incorrect, because otherwise everything about “Zone” – direction, screenplay, source material, financing – was British.
There would have been other excellent candidates in the German annual production, such as “The Investigation” or “With Love, Your Hilde”. So why did the nine-person selection committee of film industry professionals – chaired by the actor Ulrich Matthes – still choose a film that is as German as fried halloumi? The answer is: because they thought “The Seed of the Sacred Fig Tree” had the best chance of winning the Oscar. Staring at the (presumed) taste and the (putative) voting behavior of Oscar voters always makes the difference in the German nominations.
With this reasoning, the selection committee could also enter a Mongolian or Nicaraguan film for Germany – provided that German money was used to finance it (and German funding is used in many co-productions around the world). This would of course reverse the intention of the Oscar Academy, which wants to create a stage for national cinematography. Every year, almost 100 countries send their best films to the Oscars – their own best, to be precise, not those incorporated through cultural appropriation. The cheating nomination of “The Seed of the Sacred Fig Tree” in accordance with the rules is not a sign of the strength of German cinema, but of its weakness. German Films should rethink its rules.
There is no film that has shaped cinema history that Hanns-Georg Rodek has not seen. He has been a film editor and critic at Die Welt since 1995. Read his texts here.
