When Andrew Bird steps into the editing booth, he’s used to collaborating with and bouncing ideas off of a director. But in the case of “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Germany’s official Oscar submission for Best International Film, he had to learn to trust his own instincts.
That’s because the Iranian thriller, which follows a family unit being torn apart after the father figure accepts a controversial job as an investigating judge signing death sentences, had to be shot entirely in secret by director Mohammad Rasoulof. Bird anonymously edited Rasoulof’s 2013 film “Manuscripts Don’t Burn,” another politically stirring film about Iranian censorship.
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