Directors don't always create, they can also destroy with too many demands.

If you are a businessman or a politician in Iran, you can get a visa as quickly as you ask for it.

Using non-actors has its own rules and really requires that you allow them to do their own thing.

I have somewhat lost my enthusiasm in the last years. Mainly because film students using digital video these days have not really produced anything which is more than superficial or simplistic; so I have my doubts.

As film-makers, it is very important for us to find common ground between cultures, and maybe that's less the case for politicians who benefit more from finding the conflicts and differences between us.

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.

This was pointed out to me by somebody who referred to the paintings of Rembrandt and his use of light: some elements are highlighted while others are obscured or even pushed back into the dark. And it's something that we do - we bring out elements that we want to emphasise.