Mohammad Rasoulof left Iran after making his most daring film

Just days after he finished shooting his latest film, The Seed of The Sacred Fig, Mohammad Rasoulof got a call that would change the course of his life.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court had just sentenced him to eight years in prison over charges linked to his earlier films and activism. It was the latest, and harshest, in a series of arrests and jail time over the past 15 years. There was no possibility of appeal.

Security forces had yet to learn of the new film, which was shot in secret without required government authorization.

"That's when I saw no other way but leaving the country," Rasoulof told NPR's Leila Fadel during a recent visit to New York, part of travels that have taken him across the world to promote what is assuredly his most daring film.