You can't have a helicopter fly over boiling lava. It would've exploded from the heat, and is just way too dangerous. The pilot of a helicopter would've flatly refused anyway.

One of the most original and poetic works of cinema made anywhere in the seventies.

It seems odd, but people who see my films normally take them in in a deeper way than you would actually watch a film, let's say The Terminator or whatever.

Everything you see in North Korea, it's all propaganda, but it's all connected to the volcano.

With actors, normally I don't like to have any conversation about background and about motivations and all this.

We were very, very lucky [with Tim White filmed making historic discoveries in the East African Rift ] . In 100 years, only three skeletal remains [of early man] were ever found at this site. This was the third one, and we were right there when it happened. In fact, when I first heard they had found something, I said, "Please stop it! Don't do anything right now. Let's do it tomorrow until we have unpacked our cameras and assembled our stuff.

Gaining trust is not difficult for me. I needed to gain the trust of the North Korean supervisors.