--- description: Find out why Mohammad Rasoulof is one of the 100 most influential people of 2025. title: Mohammad Rasoulof: The 100 Most Influential People of 2025 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a9afdccaf4119c1/6998c5c27323af6f9f2bc6c0/time100-2025-mohammad-rasoulof.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 16, 2025 # Mohammad Rasoulof by Christiane Amanpour  PRODUCTION - 06 November 2024, Berlin: Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof in an interview with dpa. Photo: Jens Kalaene/dpa (Photo by Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images) PRODUCTION - 06 November 2024, Berlin: Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof in an interview with dpa. Photo: Jens Kalaene/dpa (Photo by Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images)dpa/picture alliance via Getty I—(c) Copyright 2024, dpa (www.dpa.de). Alle Rechte vorbehalten Mohammad Rasoulof is a courageous Iranian filmmaker, putting his freedom, safety, and even his life on the line for his craft. His latest film, _The Seed of the Sacred Fig,_ received raves at the Cannes Film Festival and was [nominated for an Oscar](https://time.com/7263448/best-oscar-nominees-2025/? "undefined"). Rasoulof was in prison for his activism and his art when the idea for the film came to him. It’s about the violent crackdown on Iran’s Woman Life Freedom movement. “The experience of this revolt,” he told me, was “seeing its effect on the people who worked inside the prison. I had a casual encounter with a senior prison official who seemed to recognize me. He got close to me and told me in secret how embarrassed he was about himself, and that he was even thinking about taking his life. Then he told me that his family, his children, kept criticizing him and asking him why he collaborates with the system, with this oppression.” That admission inspired the film. Rasoulof’s team inside Iran recorded in secret, while he directed remotely. If that makes him a hero, he credits the bravery and sacrifice of Iran’s young people. _Amanpour is a journalist and CNN’s chief international anchor_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273820/mohammad-rasoulof/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273820/mohammad-rasoulof/"},"headline":"Mohammad Rasoulof","datePublished":"2025-04-16T10:30:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:46:23.452Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273820/mohammad-rasoulof/","keywords":["TIME100","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","t100artists2025"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a9afdccaf4119c1/6998c5c27323af6f9f2bc6c0/time100-2025-mohammad-rasoulof.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a9afdccaf4119c1/6998c5c27323af6f9f2bc6c0/time100-2025-mohammad-rasoulof.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273820/mohammad-rasoulof/","name":"Mohammad Rasoulof"}}]}] ```