Poetry, especially traditional Iranian poetry, is very good at looking at things from a number of different angles simultaneously.
I’m always careful about the thing I’m writing to make sure a viewer can imagine it happening to themselves.
It’s not some big event that creates the drama, it’s the little things of everyday life that bring about that drama.
When I decide to write a story, I don’t think too much about what I want it to be, I just let things come naturally and this is how it turns out. It’s just how my subconscious works.
In my opinion when you speak about relationships between people, you are actually talking about everything in their world because everything is contained in that relationship.
There is no privilege in restriction. In other words, I disagree with people who say restriction makes you more creative. I think that’s a misleading slogan. I might have been more creative without them than with them.
I would have had the same narrative, regardless of the atmosphere and the restrictions.
Often times, music is used to evoke an emotion and it’s become a cliche, so I don’t want to do that, and actually what I do, is that emotional intensity that has developed throughout the film, I allow it to get released by having that music at the end with the credits.
I feel its important to talk about the complex issues affecting us.
Is there one specific source that determines correct morality and everybody should follow that? Or should individuals come up with following that source or not depending on their situation?
I prefer to stay in my country. But this doesn’t mean if someone does want to leave Iran, I think they’ve done something wrong – the desire to leave is completely understandable.
I like storytelling movies and more than that I like historical movies; and I think someday I’ll definitely make a movie about the past 50 years history.
Each person makes their own choice, but my spirit is meant to stay in Iran, especially with the work that I do, and with the emotional connection I have with the country – with all its difficulties, this is why I stay.
I like storytelling, and for storytelling you need a drama. And for there to be drama, you need twists, and by twists I mean the ability to constantly change the trajectory of the story.
When we talk about self-confrontations, we are speaking about moral issues rather than social issues.
I gained a great deal from the period during which I worked in theater and I value those things a great deal.
When I came to know theater, drama became valuable to me.
One of the biggest blessings in my life is that I have a very wonderful family, a lovely wife and two lovely daughters.
Whenever I write a part, I think there’s this person somewhere in the world that this part is specifically for and all I have to do is go searching to find that particular individual.
One must never tell a child what it is they should display acting.
It was important to me to make a film where I don’t show the past but where the spectators can see the past.