I get a headache when films are too filled up with people. And I don't understand what's going on if there are too many extras walking around. This film was very comfortable for me, I want to see just the actors. This is how I can concentrate.

Everything you do with Palestinians in Israel someone will criticize.

I'm a complete control freak. We worked a lot on the pace and where to put the silences. We choreographed the gestures and movements. We had a lot of rehearsals and a lot of takes. Also, there's something special that comes out of those two actors: he's water and she's fire.

The most important thing for me is the tone, the feeling, the pace. But why I'm doing this is not very clear to me. It's much more of an instinctual thing than an analytical process.

I get a headache when films are too filled up with people. And I don't understand what's going on if there are too many extras walking around. This film was very comfortable for me, I want to see just the actors. This is how I can concentrate.

At festivals there's always one spectator from Egypt who says, 'I like it, it moved me, reminds me of so many things.' I get a lot of reaction from the Arab world at fests. But the percentage of people from the Arab world who like it should be the same as anywhere else.