I Myself Had To Grow

It Was Really Bizarre, That Sabzian Business. You Know I Had No Interest In Being Photographed Before This Incident. But Then Not Just Sabzian—many Other People Started Pretending They Were Me! One Of Them Actually Got Married While Pretending He Was Me! My Face Became Publicly Recognizable Soon After I Decided To Have A Few Photographs Of Me Available In Public To Prevent These Sorts Of Identity Thefts. It Is Really Pathetic, If You Think Of It. Filmmakers And Filmmaking Is So Popular In Iran Because All Other Forms Of Expression Have Been Denied To People.

When We Began Filming, These People Had Legs, But As We Were Filming, They Had Been Injured And They Were Brought To The Hospital To Have Their Legs Amputated, And That's Where We Found Them And Asked Them To Come And Be Part Of The Film.

There's An 800 Kilometer Border Between Iran And Afghanistan.

Usually People Like To Categorise Artists. With My Films, I Categorise People: If I Know Which One Of My Movies You Like, I Can Tell Which Kind Of A Person You Are.

From 7 In The Morning To 11 At Night, I Was Reading. I Don't Think One Can Find Any Other Time In One's Life To Be Left Alone So Much To Read In Peace Like That.