1 00:00:02,516 --> 00:00:05,883 I can say that for me censorship didn't affect my work 2 00:00:06,053 --> 00:00:09,784 before of after the revolution. But this is not true of 3 00:00:09,923 --> 00:00:14,656 filmmakers who naturally can speak about their own experience. 4 00:00:14,795 --> 00:00:21,030 But to me what they refer to now as censorship in Iran 5 00:00:21,201 --> 00:00:25,035 should mostly be considered religious restrictions. 6 00:00:25,172 --> 00:00:30,906 Censorship normally happens when there are no set rules. 7 00:00:31,078 --> 00:00:34,013 Some people may decide to eliminate scenes from movies. 8 00:00:34,181 --> 00:00:37,014 But right now, we do know that there are rules such as women 9 00:00:37,184 --> 00:00:39,243 may not appear without a headscarf, not even 10 00:00:39,419 --> 00:00:41,182 with a loose-fitting one. 11 00:00:41,755 --> 00:00:44,747 Also, there are strict rules about touching. 12 00:00:46,793 --> 00:00:51,457 Generally speaking, I can't say that we don't censor ourselves. 13 00:00:51,631 --> 00:00:54,964 But I can say that we find out about the rules pretty quickly 14 00:00:55,135 --> 00:00:59,572 and then we are able to adjust ourselves to the circumstances 15 00:00:59,740 --> 00:01:03,733 and make our films. 16 00:01:05,145 --> 00:01:09,775 I've really made the movies that I've wanted to make up to now. 17 00:01:09,950 --> 00:01:12,976 I haven't made any of them simply because I wanted 18 00:01:13,153 --> 00:01:16,452 to circumvent the codes, and turn a banal story into a movie. 19 00:01:17,891 --> 00:01:22,385 Overall, I don't pick subjects involving husbands and wives 20 00:01:22,562 --> 00:01:24,496 in their apartment or room. 21 00:01:25,332 --> 00:01:29,496 Because when you make a movie you have to believe 22 00:01:29,669 --> 00:01:32,001 the story yourself. We put a series of lies together 23 00:01:32,172 --> 00:01:33,799 to reach a higher truth. 24 00:01:34,074 --> 00:01:36,474 For example, to show the truth of a family, 25 00:01:36,810 --> 00:01:39,677 we don't have to use a real family. 26 00:01:39,813 --> 00:01:43,510 We may get the husband from somewhere, the wife 27 00:01:43,650 --> 00:01:45,641 from somewhere else, borrow a child and rent an apartment. 28 00:01:45,786 --> 00:01:48,254 But the combination of all these elements should give us 29 00:01:48,422 --> 00:01:49,912 an exact definition of the family. 30 00:01:50,090 --> 00:01:54,891 And the definition is quite clear to all of us. 31 00:01:55,061 --> 00:01:56,551 It's a unit in which people have a relationship 32 00:01:56,730 --> 00:02:00,689 of total privacy and security with one another. 33 00:02:01,501 --> 00:02:03,992 A child would not have any designs on the mother 34 00:02:04,137 --> 00:02:06,833 and the husband has no problems with his wife's hair. 35 00:02:07,507 --> 00:02:10,101 But what if I looked through my viewfinder 36 00:02:10,243 --> 00:02:11,232 and realize that this is not a real family. 37 00:02:12,512 --> 00:02:14,241 They don't have any real relationship to each other. 38 00:02:14,414 --> 00:02:16,848 We work so hard to say that despite all those "lies" 39 00:02:16,983 --> 00:02:19,508 we try to demonstrate a concept, the concept of a family. 40 00:02:20,086 --> 00:02:22,987 So I won't be able to define a family when I realize 41 00:02:23,156 --> 00:02:29,720 that I can't show it the way I've lived it. 42 00:02:30,630 --> 00:02:34,191 I remember that my father could see my mother's hair. 43 00:02:34,701 --> 00:02:38,660 As a child I never had a problem caressing my grandmother's hair. 44 00:02:39,372 --> 00:02:41,237 So this is a family that I don't know, 45 00:02:41,441 --> 00:02:44,774 and since I don't know it, I won't touch it. 46 00:02:44,911 --> 00:02:49,348 By that I mean to say that I have automatically avoided 47 00:02:49,483 --> 00:02:51,610 thinking about relationships between men and women 48 00:02:51,785 --> 00:02:55,277 within households. Maybe this is why I unconsciously 49 00:02:55,455 --> 00:03:01,018 keep going to the villages to make films. 50 00:03:04,431 --> 00:03:08,492 The problem of censorship has always existed. 51 00:03:08,668 --> 00:03:11,102 Especially when I'm outside of Iran, usually the first 52 00:03:11,271 --> 00:03:13,603 or second question asked has to do with censorship. 53 00:03:13,773 --> 00:03:19,905 In the West, when I'm asked about censorship in Iran, I get offended. 54 00:03:20,046 --> 00:03:25,245 They think we are some Third World country with some sort of 55 00:03:25,385 --> 00:03:30,345 of incredible censorship and we work under terrible conditions. 56 00:03:30,490 --> 00:03:33,357 But when I think about it, I realize that we've always had 57 00:03:33,493 --> 00:03:38,260 to face the problem of censorship not just as filmmakers, 58 00:03:38,398 --> 00:03:41,890 but even as citizens of Iran. We've always had censorship. 59 00:03:42,068 --> 00:03:46,334 It starts in our families when we can't speak our minds 60 00:03:46,506 --> 00:03:50,567 because our parents decide what's right and wrong for us. 61 00:03:50,744 --> 00:03:53,406 In the schools, there is even harsher discipline - 62 00:03:53,580 --> 00:03:55,741 all sorts of educational censorship. 63 00:03:55,916 --> 00:04:00,615 And that continues until it finds its place in our professions- 64 00:04:00,787 --> 00:04:03,085 the filmmaker's profession, for example. 65 00:04:03,256 --> 00:04:05,747 So in my mind, censorship is not something 66 00:04:05,926 --> 00:04:09,327 that bothers us terribly, because we found our ways to counter it. 67 00:04:09,496 --> 00:04:11,794 In fact, the whole nation has learned how to deal with it, 68 00:04:11,932 --> 00:04:15,868 and we, as filmmakers, like everyone else in their profession 69 00:04:16,002 --> 00:04:20,632 have learned how to circumvent any imposing force 70 00:04:20,807 --> 00:04:25,642 and somehow manage. This is a reality. 71 00:04:25,779 --> 00:04:30,978 Especially in our case, our cinema is a director's medium. 72 00:04:31,117 --> 00:04:34,314 And the more a filmmaker comes under pressure due 73 00:04:34,487 --> 00:04:37,217 to the nature of his work, the more he is forced 74 00:04:37,390 --> 00:04:39,722 to come up with better solutions and find new means of expression. 75 00:04:39,893 --> 00:04:44,057 I have an architect friend who tells me that some of the lots 76 00:04:44,197 --> 00:04:46,529 he has built on over the last 20 years have been crooked. 77 00:04:46,666 --> 00:04:50,659 Whenever anyone asks him what buildings he has designed, 78 00:04:50,804 --> 00:04:55,207 he cites one of those as an example, because 79 00:04:55,375 --> 00:05:00,335 they were nonstandard and thus they forced him to come up 80 00:05:00,513 --> 00:05:04,472 with creative solutions to make something out of them. 81 00:05:05,118 --> 00:05:09,077 That's how he managed to do something new in the field. 82 00:05:09,255 --> 00:05:12,952 With respect to films or art in general, it's true that art is born 83 00:05:13,126 --> 00:05:15,026 of difficult or unfavorable circumstances for the artist. 84 00:05:15,695 --> 00:05:19,825 I say this very cautiously, especially outside of Iran, 85 00:05:19,966 --> 00:05:23,766 because I think that I might be justifying restrictions 86 00:05:23,937 --> 00:05:25,734 or saying that censorship is not a problem. 87 00:05:26,072 --> 00:05:29,473 People might think that I say those things out of fear, 88 00:05:29,709 --> 00:05:32,769 or perhaps because of a favorable attitude towards 89 00:05:32,946 --> 00:05:35,005 my country or government. Also, when I leave the country 90 00:05:35,181 --> 00:05:39,015 I really don't want to hear negative things about it. 91 00:05:39,419 --> 00:05:43,549 I think, even if we have censorship in Iran, 92 00:05:43,723 --> 00:05:47,352 we should deal with it ourselves. As my father used to say, 93 00:05:47,527 --> 00:05:51,019 if your head breaks, it better break in your own hat. 94 00:05:51,197 --> 00:05:53,927 We shouldn't talk about it anywhere else because 95 00:05:54,100 --> 00:05:57,501 there's no advantage in it- nobody can untie our knots 96 00:05:57,671 --> 00:05:59,605 or solve our problems. 97 00:05:59,773 --> 00:06:02,799 For that reason, I never speak about censorship outside of Iran 98 00:06:02,976 --> 00:06:06,241 especially for foreign reporters. 99 00:06:06,413 --> 00:06:10,816 Often I ask them: don't you have your own censorship? 100 00:06:10,984 --> 00:06:15,250 The government censors but also provides financial assistance. 101 00:06:15,422 --> 00:06:18,391 Because of the positive outlook that I have had in recent years 102 00:06:18,558 --> 00:06:21,026 in my personal and professional life, I tend to say that I 103 00:06:21,194 --> 00:06:26,029 for one don't have much of a problem with censorship. 104 00:06:26,199 --> 00:06:30,829 Not that I endorse it, but I simply say to the censors, 105 00:06:31,004 --> 00:06:35,031 you do your job and we'll do ours. 106 00:06:35,208 --> 00:06:37,904 In the final analysis, it's our work that survives. 107 00:06:39,446 --> 00:06:43,678 The festival reception abroad, as far as I can tell, 108 00:06:45,785 --> 00:06:47,685 has meant a kind of endorsement, 109 00:06:47,821 --> 00:06:51,882 and gives us self-confidence. 110 00:06:52,025 --> 00:06:55,256 When you have self-confidence, 111 00:06:55,395 --> 00:06:58,694 you become more daring and try new experiments. 112 00:06:59,499 --> 00:07:03,128 We don't enjoy a lot of support at home. 113 00:07:03,670 --> 00:07:09,131 Whenever a film has deviated a bit from standard conventions, 114 00:07:09,309 --> 00:07:13,973 it has met with the shortsightedness 115 00:07:14,147 --> 00:07:19,744 and limited knowledge of some critics. 116 00:07:19,919 --> 00:07:23,184 These angry critics who normally have a stronger presence 117 00:07:23,356 --> 00:07:26,848 in the media attack the films fiercely. 118 00:07:27,026 --> 00:07:30,655 They have sometimes managed to adversely color 119 00:07:30,830 --> 00:07:36,268 the perceptions of people or even the film producers. 120 00:07:37,303 --> 00:07:41,899 Outside of Iran, they have paid more attention to some 121 00:07:42,075 --> 00:07:44,942 other aspects of the films, 122 00:07:45,278 --> 00:07:49,715 and have given us a bit more self-confidence. 123 00:07:49,883 --> 00:07:53,341 I can't deny that, but I can assure you 124 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:56,489 that this self-confidence has not made me change 125 00:07:56,623 --> 00:07:58,818 my filmmaking style and techniques to make them 126 00:07:58,958 --> 00:08:00,721 agreeable with Western critics' tastes. 127 00:08:00,860 --> 00:08:05,593 Whenever I make a film, it's the content 128 00:08:05,732 --> 00:08:08,724 that determines the film's style. 129 00:08:09,202 --> 00:08:11,397 I don't have the ability to change anything 130 00:08:11,538 --> 00:08:17,374 to make it more pleasing to the eyes of the West 131 00:08:17,544 --> 00:08:21,537 or critics or festivals. 132 00:08:21,681 --> 00:08:25,276 Each film is made based on its own requirements. 133 00:08:26,886 --> 00:08:30,481 It's not conscious, but now that one can see all my films 134 00:08:30,657 --> 00:08:33,387 as a body of work, it seems like they all talk 135 00:08:33,560 --> 00:08:35,221 about the same things. 136 00:08:35,395 --> 00:08:39,331 Someone once said that every filmmaker basically makes 137 00:08:39,499 --> 00:08:41,933 only one film in his lifetime, but he cuts it down 138 00:08:42,101 --> 00:08:44,934 and offers it in cinematic installments to his audience 139 00:08:45,104 --> 00:08:48,232 over a period of time. 140 00:08:49,042 --> 00:08:52,739 It's difficult to talk about the things that I like 141 00:08:52,912 --> 00:08:54,436 because you see them in my films. 142 00:08:54,614 --> 00:09:00,052 It's easier for me to talk about things that I don't like. 143 00:09:00,220 --> 00:09:02,450 What I don't like, you don't see in my films. 144 00:09:02,822 --> 00:09:05,814 But in all, I don't like to engage in telling stories. 145 00:09:06,392 --> 00:09:11,625 I don't like to arouse the viewer emotionally or give him advice. 146 00:09:11,764 --> 00:09:15,860 I don't like to belittle him or 147 00:09:16,002 --> 00:09:19,995 burden him with a sense of guilt. 148 00:09:20,139 --> 00:09:27,102 Those are the things I don't like in the movies. 149 00:09:27,247 --> 00:09:29,977 I think a good film is one that has a lasting power, 150 00:09:30,149 --> 00:09:34,643 and you start to reconstruct it right after you leave the theater 151 00:09:34,821 --> 00:09:40,088 There are a lot of films that seem to be boring, 152 00:09:40,260 --> 00:09:44,128 but they are decent films. On the other hand, 153 00:09:44,297 --> 00:09:47,960 there are films that nail you to your seat and overwhelm you 154 00:09:48,134 --> 00:09:52,537 to the point that you forget everything, 155 00:09:52,705 --> 00:09:57,870 but you feel cheated later. 156 00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:02,842 These are the films that take you hostage. 157 00:10:03,016 --> 00:10:08,079 I absolutely don't like the films in which the filmmakers 158 00:10:08,221 --> 00:10:12,282 take their viewers hostage and provoke them. 159 00:10:12,425 --> 00:10:17,385 I prefer the films that put their audience to sleep in the theater. 160 00:10:18,631 --> 00:10:21,156 I think those films are kind enough to allow you a nice nap 161 00:10:21,334 --> 00:10:24,963 and not leave you disturbed 162 00:10:25,104 --> 00:10:28,631 when you leave the theater. 163 00:10:28,808 --> 00:10:31,675 Some films have made me doze off in the theater, 164 00:10:31,844 --> 00:10:34,642 but the same films have made me stay up at night, 165 00:10:34,814 --> 00:10:38,341 wake up thinking about them in the morning, and keep on 166 00:10:38,518 --> 00:10:40,577 thinking about them for weeks. 167 00:10:40,753 --> 00:10:42,516 Those are the kind of films I like. 168 00:10:44,123 --> 00:10:46,751 Someone told me that my characters are all abnormal 169 00:10:46,926 --> 00:10:50,453 in one way or another. They all deviate from the norm. 170 00:10:50,630 --> 00:10:53,622 From the child in the movie "The Traveller", to 171 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:57,793 Mr. Firoozkoohi in " The Report" to Hussein Sabzain in " Close-up" 172 00:10:57,971 --> 00:10:59,871 or Hussein in "Through the Olive Trees" or all of 173 00:11:00,039 --> 00:11:02,837 my characters like Hussein in " The Experience" or the kids 174 00:11:03,309 --> 00:11:06,574 in " The Wedding suit". I realize that, 175 00:11:06,746 --> 00:11:12,776 without really wanting to, I'm drawn to unique people. 176 00:11:12,952 --> 00:11:16,388 Since we can't put every single person in front of our camera, 177 00:11:16,556 --> 00:11:19,787 we have to look for special people or ordinary people 178 00:11:19,959 --> 00:11:23,395 in special circumstances. 179 00:11:23,997 --> 00:11:28,229 What does their being special tell us? It reminds us 180 00:11:28,401 --> 00:11:34,135 we are like them and that's why one person makes a film. 181 00:11:34,307 --> 00:11:39,370 One person acts in it, but it communicates with thousands. 182 00:11:39,545 --> 00:11:43,845 In fact, both the filmmaker and the actor have something 183 00:11:44,017 --> 00:11:47,544 in common with the viewer- That commonly proves that if 184 00:11:47,720 --> 00:11:50,712 the actor for example is abnormal, then all those watching 185 00:11:50,890 --> 00:11:53,620 are also abnormal, because if they didn't have the abnormality 186 00:11:53,793 --> 00:11:59,993 within themselves, how can they recognize it in others? 187 00:12:01,901 --> 00:12:04,995 To talk about the differences between illusion and reality 188 00:12:05,138 --> 00:12:07,504 is such a vast topic that I don't know where to begin. 189 00:12:07,640 --> 00:12:11,838 I can't tell you how I experience those elements 190 00:12:11,978 --> 00:12:15,470 in my work and in my life, 191 00:12:15,615 --> 00:12:21,019 when I discovered what part of me is reality 192 00:12:21,187 --> 00:12:26,056 and what part illusion, or why I've had this game of vacillation 193 00:12:26,225 --> 00:12:32,221 from reality to illusion and back to reality in my ordinary life, 194 00:12:32,398 --> 00:12:36,425 not necessarily as a filmmaker. 195 00:12:36,869 --> 00:12:40,532 I have discovered that this is not limited only to filmmakers 196 00:12:40,706 --> 00:12:44,107 or intellectuals- Everyone is involved. The capability 197 00:12:44,277 --> 00:12:47,769 to dream is the most important human characteristic, 198 00:12:47,947 --> 00:12:50,575 shared not proportionately but enough for each. 199 00:12:50,850 --> 00:12:54,377 Though all of us dream, only one of us can talk about our dreams. 200 00:12:54,554 --> 00:12:58,684 The imagination is one of the most distinct and extraordinary 201 00:12:58,858 --> 00:13:05,229 gifts granted to human beings. We are aware of our other senses, 202 00:13:05,398 --> 00:13:10,301 such as sight, taste and hearing, and we are grateful for them. 203 00:13:10,470 --> 00:13:14,065 But we don't seem to know what immense possibilities 204 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:19,644 are open to us through the imagination. 205 00:13:19,912 --> 00:13:24,940 What is the function of dreaming? Where did it come from? 206 00:13:25,118 --> 00:13:31,921 Why do we have the ability to dream? And why must we dream? 207 00:13:32,091 --> 00:13:35,117 If it doesn't have a function in our life, 208 00:13:35,294 --> 00:13:41,199 then what is the reason for it? I finally found a reason. 209 00:13:41,367 --> 00:13:43,699 When do we resort to dreaming? At times when we are unhappy 210 00:13:43,870 --> 00:13:48,239 with our circumstances. And how extraordinary is it that no 211 00:13:48,407 --> 00:13:53,242 dictatorship in the world can control it? 212 00:13:54,347 --> 00:14:01,947 No system of inquisition can control one's fantasies. 213 00:14:02,121 --> 00:14:06,114 They can throw you in jail, but you still have the ability 214 00:14:06,292 --> 00:14:08,783 to live your sentence outside the prison without anyone 215 00:14:08,928 --> 00:14:13,422 holding you there. Through the imagination, you can pass over 216 00:14:13,599 --> 00:14:17,535 the insurmountable walls without leaving any trace of yourself, 217 00:14:18,004 --> 00:14:23,601 and you can always go back. Now the question is, 218 00:14:23,776 --> 00:14:28,270 once out, why go back? That has to do with the credibility 219 00:14:28,447 --> 00:14:32,144 of reality-you have to go back 220 00:14:32,285 --> 00:14:35,880 and see what your reality is. 221 00:14:36,522 --> 00:14:39,855 In fact, through dreaming, you have the opportunity to tolerate 222 00:14:40,026 --> 00:14:44,258 some of the unchangeable hardships of life. 223 00:14:44,430 --> 00:14:48,025 You get out, you dream, you are 224 00:14:48,167 --> 00:14:51,625 refreshed and you go back. 225 00:14:52,471 --> 00:14:58,103 It's like being in a stuffy room and opening a window. 226 00:14:58,277 --> 00:15:02,839 You let the air come in and then you breathe. 227 00:15:03,015 --> 00:15:05,540 In my mind, our dreams are windows in our lives 228 00:15:05,718 --> 00:15:09,950 and the significance of cinema is in its similarity to this window. 229 00:16:44,483 --> 00:16:47,247 Tell the cameraman that, since violence will never leave 230 00:16:47,386 --> 00:16:51,413 the American film, an important thing Tarantino has done 231 00:16:51,590 --> 00:16:55,321 is to find a way to at least make fun of violence, 232 00:16:55,528 --> 00:16:57,496 and that brings down the tension of violence. 233 00:16:58,964 --> 00:17:03,458 Early on, I had no interest in making films for children. 234 00:17:03,602 --> 00:17:06,162 I began to make children's films due to my employment 235 00:17:06,305 --> 00:17:08,136 at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of 236 00:17:08,641 --> 00:17:10,199 Children and Young Adults. 237 00:17:10,609 --> 00:17:12,702 I began my career making commercials. 238 00:17:12,845 --> 00:17:14,642 If I were still making them, 239 00:17:14,780 --> 00:17:16,680 you would've asked me about my interest in commercials. 240 00:17:16,816 --> 00:17:18,750 As I was making films for children, 241 00:17:18,884 --> 00:17:21,910 I gradually discovered them. 242 00:17:22,054 --> 00:17:25,922 Over 20 years of working with children 243 00:17:26,058 --> 00:17:29,516 I realized how nice and easygoing they are, 244 00:17:29,662 --> 00:17:34,292 and their viewpoints are often more accurate and 245 00:17:34,433 --> 00:17:40,099 more interesting than those of adults. 246 00:17:40,239 --> 00:17:44,801 Children are like the sages we read about in books. 247 00:17:44,944 --> 00:17:49,745 They live like them. They are extremely opportunistic 248 00:17:49,882 --> 00:17:53,340 in a good sense. 249 00:17:53,486 --> 00:18:00,722 And that's what I admire about them. 250 00:18:00,860 --> 00:18:05,820 Although I don't make films for or about children anymore, 251 00:18:05,965 --> 00:18:09,765 I think I have been affected by my years 252 00:18:09,902 --> 00:18:13,861 of working with them. 253 00:18:14,573 --> 00:18:20,273 My films have a kind of childlike playfulness about them. 254 00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:26,149 They reflect a very simple and 255 00:18:26,285 --> 00:18:32,781 almost childish philosophy of life. 256 00:18:32,925 --> 00:18:39,728 I try to look at the world and life 257 00:18:39,865 --> 00:18:43,460 from a child's point of view.