The film [Close Up] made itself, to a large extent. The characters involved were very real, I wasn't directing the actors so much as being directed by them. So it was a very particular film.

Good cinema is what we can believe and bad cinema is what we can't believe. What you see and believe in is very much what I'm interested in.

Film is very much a universal and common voice, and we can't limit it to one particular culture.

I think life is so difficult to catch, it's so furtive, that a copy, a film, can in no way catch it and represent it.

Despite the great advantages of digital video and the great ease of using the medium, still those who use it have first to understand the sensitivities of how to best use the medium.

The [Iranian] government grapples with more important issues and we can maybe say that these films don't really exist for them. It's not about whether they like it or don't; it's just not very important to them.

A digital camera does have many advantages and I was a believer that digital video would be a big influence on film-making.