My last experience of film-making was Tickets, a three-episode film in Italy, the third of which is directed by myself. It's not for me to judge whether it's a good film or a bad film, but what I could say is that nobody had a cultural or linguistic issue with what was produced.

I do think that we are sometimes, as directors, guilty of portraying or asking our actors to behave in certain ways that are perhaps not very morally acceptable. I'm not the only one.

In my opinion the man looks at the relationship in a more bitter fashion and the woman still holds great hopes.

If I do continue to have the opportunity to work in Iran, that's very much what I'd prefer to do.

When you take a tree that is rooted in the ground, and transfer it from one place to another, the tree will no longer bear fruit. And if it does, the fruit will not be as good as it was in its original place. This is a rule of nature. I think if I had left my country, I would be the same as the tree.

Close-Up has affected later films that I've made.

This [the earthquake] was a very big influence on me, and the issue of life and death from then on does recur in my films.