A family is torn apart by a missing firearm in "The Seed of the Sacred Fig," a searing thriller that rises to a white hot boil.

The missing firearm is a stand-in for much larger conflicts — religious, political and generational in nature — in writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof's courageous portrait of the Iranian government's authoritarian policies and their effect on its citizens, and on one family in particular. It's a monumental work which is effective on large and small scales, both timeless and extremely of-the-moment.

Iman (Missagh Zareh) is a lawyer living in Tehran with his wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) and his two daughters, college-aged Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and teenager Sana (Setareh Maleki). When he is called up to the role of investigating judge, the job comes with better pay and a more spacious home for his family. But it requires him to sentence dozens if not hundreds of protesters to death, and he's expected to do so without question to follow the strict rule of law.

The protests are coming in the wake of the death of a woman, Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after she was arrested for violating the country's hijab law. Conflicts in the streets are far reaching — real footage of the protests are worked into the film — and tensions are spilling over everywhere, including into individual homes.

Due to his appointment, Iman's children are required to keep to themselves and stay off social media, so as to help protect their father's anonymity, and not draw any unwanted attention toward him. Iman is issued a gun for his protection, and when that gun goes missing — which, if discovered, could mean three years jail time for Iman — the family is thrown into upheaval.

Did he misplace it? Did one of his daughters swipe it? Did it get up and walk away in the middle of the night? Paranoia grips Iman as loyalties are tested — between him and his daughters, between him and his wife, between his wife and his daughters — and pressures mount around him.

Typical conflicts between parents and children — differences of thought, relationships to technology — are escalated due to the nature and seriousness of the situation, and Rasoulof builds to an intensely gripping conclusion and a breathless game of cat and mouse where no possible outcome is satisfactory to all parties.

This is urgent, gripping, intense filmmaking, its themes universal while playing to the hyperspecific. This is one conflict in particular, but it could stretch to any unrest, large or small, which rips people apart.

The performances are excellent — as the young woman on whom so much of the movie hangs, Rostami is particularly resonant — as "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" twists and knots itself into a scary portrayal of humanity, authority, rule and choice, and other elements that corrode from the inside.

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'THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG'

Grade: A-

MPA rating: PG-13 (for disturbing violent content, bloody images, thematic content, some language and smoking)

Running time: 2:47

How to watch: Now in theaters

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