There are those who simply want to live their lives, and feel they cannot live the way they want to in Iran. Others are ideologically motivated: They will stay no matter what and try to change things.

The fact that I do place music at the end of my films is not to accentuate the emotion. It serves an opposite purpose which is to remove them from the emotional space and allow them to enter a space of thinking, because I believe that when the audience is watching the film they're watching it with their feelings.

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 feel it’s important to talk about the complex issues affecting us. And these are complex issues. I think it’s insulting to an audience to make them sit and watch a film and then give them a message in one sentence.

The fact is I'm not making a film in order to draw pictures or make images about Iran.

I think that theater is the closest medium to music. It's very pure. It's for the elite of the society. It's not for everyone in the society.

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.