UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema: Bomb, A Love Story | Payman Maadi

[Paul Malcolm:] Thank you so much for being here again with us with another amazing film. It's a real honor to have you here. [Payman Maadi:] Thank you, Paul. Thank you for having me here [Maadi, in Persian] Hello to non-Persian speaking people here. This is the, actually the second time that I'm here. [Malcolm:] Mmm hmm. [Maadi:] First time, it was like six years ago? [Malcolm:] It was 2013, yeah six years ago. "Snow on the Pines" [Maadi:] Six years ago, yeah, I was privileged and very lucky to be here with my first feature film and this is the second time that I'm here with my second feature film. Feels great and thank you for having me. [Malcolm:] Of course. Going back to "Snow on the Pines". That was a film that was very intimate film. Few characters. All take place in like a, you know, one house, one setting, sort of a chamber piece really. This was a much bigger canvas. A much bigger scale. I mean, more characters, more sets, special effects, you know, a lot of stuff going on in this film. Was this a story, I don't wa- basically asking you how you came to this story? And did you start out with it? I mean, was there a strategy here? Start out with the, the smaller film, get some confidence as a director your first film, and then second film, tackle something bigger? [Maadi:] It wasn't like that. It wasn't planned actually, but I'm happy that it happened like that. 'Cause I wanted to make this film like 10 years ago. Like five years before I did my first feature film. I had this story in my mind and I, you know, was keeping this story in my mind, since just like, I can tell you, like 10 years ago. I couldn't get rid of it. I tried sometimes and I, I sent this story to treatment to some film festivals around the world and I was, again lucky, that I received, you know, the, the awards for best treatments from some of these film festivals and, you know, they, they're, you know how it is. They're giving you the grants to make it and, and you, you cannot get rid of, you know, not making it. So you have to make it, you know, like that. [Malcolm:] Right. You're on the hook. [Maadi:] So it happened just like that. And I, I wanted to make it just like this, like a big production movie compared to Iranian scales. And I was, I was very, again, lucky that I had a great team with me. You cannot make a, you know, big production movie without, you know, big helps from your DOP, like your costume designer, your set designers, all like that. And I had them all beside me, yeah. They helped a lot, great of deal, yeah. [Malcolm:] One of my favorite scenes in the film comes towards the end. It's when they put the motorcycle helmets on. And she says, "This is to protect them from the shrapnel." But they're also going to have this very intimate conversation. They're finally going to talk. And the - they need to protect themselves. You still feel their, their defensiveness. So this, the helmets become this beautiful way of, this metaphor for self-protection. And it's also that moment where the backdrop of the war and this personal story really, it just resonates really well. So, I mean, that's an image I could see not wanting to let go of if it was in your head 10 years ago. But which, which did come first? The, the, the love story and the war? I mean, did it, I mean, the people in the backdrop. How did that all come together, the themes that you're working with here? [Maadi:] Yeah, no, Paul, the helmet scene I have to add, meet and confess that it wasn't my idea, at the beginning. Yeah, I was, you know, I was very close to, you know, you know, like, like the final drafts of my rewriting. And then a friend of mine, which is a very great... set designer, he came to me and said this story, which was a real story. He said, "I entered the room and it was like two people, a husband and wife, because they couldn't go downstairs. They didn't have a safe, you know, asylum like that. And they were sitting there with these helmets in the darkness. And it was like, you know, Martian people." It was just like space and it was like funny and he passed out when he entered the room and saw them. And I said, "You know what? You gave me the poster of the film right now. I'm going to put this as a poster of my film and I'm definitely, I will use it in the film." About your next question, I have to say, "Yes." It began like the plot. The main idea was a young boy, during this, those periods of, you know, they're like bombardments, and like that. Goes down to the basement and falls in love with a girl there. And each night, he is praying for the enemy to come to attack and drop bombs, to go down to the basement and to see his beloved. Then he realized, in some point, that these wishes, these things is causing something like those damages and he feels bad about himself. And he thinks when you read that, in that is, you think that that was your wish that people had, you know, been dead, and like that and that's why something like that happens. So it became like that. Then, then the idea of the, the mature, you know, the adult couple came along. And, you know what? The great thing for me was - when people, when a couple, the marriage, when they fight with each other, there's nothing serious, you know, happening between them. Because when you fight for something, you, you feel there is something there that you can fight for. And you can, you know, heal it. You can, you know, save it. But with - when you don't fight over something and it's a coldness in a, in a relationship, that's where it's just like, it's a dangerous relationship. That's a dead end. So in this relationship, that was what I had in my mind. And you need a miracle to save this relationship. To me, this miracle was just like somebody says, "If they drop bombs, and it, it happened." And the main goal was, even the hardest relationships which seems that there's no heal, there's no way to, to, you know, to be saved, will be saved if we talk with each other. That is what we don't do these days, even not between people. Between countries. If they talk with each other, if they communicate with each other. If you make and prepare the situation for them to talk with each other, maybe lots of problems will be solved. And in darkness - thank you. I didn't... [applause] ...people when you put people in darkness and silent, like this situation, they must start, they must talk. [Malcolm:] Right. [Maadi:] When people are in darkness, and it's silence, they will speak and that's why we, we chose to do this movie in that period of time. Yeah. [Malcolm:] Well, there's also that urgency that when you're sitting quietly and not talking, you don't realize just when the line is crossed that it's too late to talk, you know. And so that there's this - there is a sense of urgency because of the, the war. Everyone, you know, no one knows who's going to live two minutes from now, so we should really resolve this beforehand. But there is that stubbornness that some people, myself included, have, like I'm not, you know - there's a wish - there's a really interesting wish fulfillment or kind of avoidance going on in the older, the Principal of the school, your character. And then in the - what's really interesting is the boy is just getting to understand or be experience love and to try and figure out what those emotions mean for him and the lessons of it and but the older character is still trying to figure it out himself, which I think is so like, you know, the parallel between the two, of that shot you have of them. He's up on the one window up on the third floor. She's down - he's down there. That parallel between the two and, and just that feeling that God, we're still - doesn't matter how old you are. You still have to try and figure it out or something from the outside has to force you into that. I wanted to go back to the question of your collaborators, set designer, cinematographer. First because that opening shot is so amazing. It's one long take down this extraordinary set and it really sort of sets the tone for what's to come. There's a little bit of nostalgia there. There's, there's this - I mean to me, it's this wonderful cinematic shot, that really announces that we're going to be experiencing someone who, you know, loves cinema, knows cinema and this is going to be a great experience. But technically, I mean, it's so interesting. So much of Iranian Cinema, contemporary Iranian Cinema, is so, it's like realist. It's on the street. It's out on location. And you, in "Snow on the Pines", but here too, very much working in sound stages and this shot was extraordinary for that sound stage work. What do you like about working on the sound stages? Do you feel that sets your, your sort of voice or your sort of style, apart from, you know, maybe what's Iranian Cinema's known for these days? [Maadi:] Actually, about that, set designing, I have to say this. This is very important for people who lives in Iran or travel back and forth to Iran, they know what I'm saying. Today, Tehran, or some of the cities in Iran doesn't have even one inch similarity with what was like 30 years ago in that city. You cannot find just like two meters the same thing. Everything has been changed. To me, I say unfortunately, 'cause we don't have the same city that we had like 30 years ago. So, you have to make every single thing which you showed in the film. This means every single person who passed in front of the camera was costumed, was made up, the hair, just like, you know, the beard. The costumes and everything. All the shops, all the, you know, cars and everything like that. So it was a hard job. But the hardest job is not that. 'Cause when I have like Mohsen Shah-Ebrahimi, the set designer, which is a great human being, a very talented person. The first, I say, "Yes. I know that we have 6,000 photos from that moment. And we will make every details from that. Every single detail. Every writings, every streets, every, you know, windows, everything exactly the same thing. "Just like a document, you know, thing to remain some day. Like some day if somebody wants to go back and see what was happening back there. They can have this document as like Mohsen Shah-Ebrahimi's signature for these things. "But the thing is, I want to ask you, Mohsen Shah-Ebrahimi, one thing that we will set everything very precise and very realistic. But I don't want people to say, 'Oh my God, that window. Oh my God, that street. Oh my God, that car.'" This is not the thing that we're - the reason that we're making this film. We are making it this film to tell a story. So we only have like four or five minutes all the time in the beginning of the movie to show people and to throw these people into our world. If it's a western movie you're watching, you will believe that it's just like, like hundreds of years ago. If it's a period movie like this film, you have like three, four minutes to put the people in this era in that period of time and leave them in there. After that, they have to follow the story, you know. So yeah, it was a hard thing to do. But it was very amazing, 'cause we, we made lots of this. For example, those notebooks or books that the schools, all those bags. They're not existing anymore. We, we made everything. And it was a very beautiful thing. And it is still is there, 'cause the Museum of Art they wanted us to gave those things to them. Yeah, and it's there. [Malcolm:] The film feels really, like richly textured. I mean, from - you mentioned the notebooks of being, but the school feels very lived in. It feels like, you know, the walls of the school, the apartment building. I mean, yeah, the detail is there. It's amazing. [Maadi:] Yeah, I was blessed to have this beautiful, you know, crew with me. And we enjoyed it very much, very, very much we, we enjoyed this, making this film. [Malcolm:] I just have a few more questions and then we'll turn it over to the audience. We don't have an interpreter tonight. So feel free to ask your questions in Farsi or English and Mr. Maadi will answer them... as he feels like it. [Maadi:] Definitely, my Farsi is better than my English. [Malcolm:] Yes. [Malcolm:] And my Farsi is non-existent. [Maadi:] Let's, let's say something that Paul doesn't understand. [Malcolm:] Yes. [Maadi:] As we Iranians do always in the parties, you know. [Malcolm:] I would say that wouldn't be the first Q&A that's happened at. [Maadi:] If we have a foreigner between us, we all speak Farsi. And when we want not to feel bad and guilty, we say, "It's not important thing. Don't worry about it." [audience laughs] [Maadi:] It's always important. [Malcolm:] I could also just go. It's fine. No, it's okay. So I - a couple of questions. First, I wanted to ask you again about working with Leila Hatami. You, obviously, you - the big film is, "A Separation". You work with her as an actor on a number of different films. You guys have worked together as actors or performers. What was it like when you - what was her response when you approached her to be her director this time? Did she have any questions for you? And what was it like directing someone who you've been acting with? So, for so long. [Maadi:] Yeah, I know Leila very good. She's a very good friend of mine. And she is a hard person to work with, which I like that very much. Good, good, good actors and good actresses, they have lots of questions. They are very hard picking the projects. I'm very happy that none of my friends, like Leila or the others, never, I expect them to, you know, come along with me to do a movie because of the friendship between us. I have to have something promising for them to do this. Leila knows it better than me after "A Separation", after the success of "Separation". We had lots of offers doing movies together. And we were hesitating to do so. So because we didn't want to, you know, do something like together again, like that as a couple. But this one, we thought that it's us again. And once - it was funny that once somebody asked me about the arc of this character. For example, one, what happens to Leila from the beginning to the end or what happens to that kid as you just mentioned, from the beginning to the end. What will he study? What when, you know, the journey that this character goes? And he said, "What was your... arc? What was your journey? What, what, what, in that scene, what were you thinking of?" And I was saying, "You know, to be honest with you in that scene, I was thinking how to direct the next scene. [laughs] That's what!" And that's why you think that I'm playing very good in that scene. But I know I was concerned about, you know, the next scene. So that was the easy part for me to do that, but Leila helps me very much. She helped me very much. She even in some scenes, which she is not in the scene, she was coming to the scene, and she was, you know, seeing what's happening in the scene. She was calling me just like every now and then I say, "You know what I think about this scene, about that little kid in the basement... What if she do that? What if...?" She is very much attached to the project and you like to work with people like that. Every single person, like actors and, you know, DOPs and all the other people. If each of them add just like this much value to the film, you will have a better film, you know, at the end. And Leila is one of those people. I'm very happy to work with her like that. [Malcolm:] Another person I think you worked with in the film, who I only recognized on screen because I met her earlier tonight, was your daughter, is in this film? Yes, she plays the... [Maadi:] My daughter, she's there. [Malcolm:] She's right over there. Yes. [Maadi:] Stand up! Yeah. [applause] [Malcolm:] The fantastic... [Maadi:] My daughter. She was and is in every movie that I make. She appears in the - we did like some theater someplace. We did "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett in Iran in front of 700 people and she was playing very good. Very great. [Malcolm:] Excellent, excellent performance. [Maadi:] So proud of her. She's a great artist. Yeah. [Malcolm:] That's great. That's great. Well one more person and I'll turn it over the - Eleni Karaindrou, the composer for the film - the music in this film... The opening shot draws us into this world and the music is a big part of that in throughout the film. She was also a composer for Theo Angelopoulos, the Greek filmmaker whose films were very focused on like memory and history and the sort of like, ideological conflicts of the 20th century. How did you come to find her? And how did she come on to the project? [Maadi:] You know, to make it short, I'd just like to say this. That it's a, it's a very weird and beautiful story, you know, having Eleni with me in the film. Eleni Karaindrou, for me as a film lover, was always the best music composer in the world. Always. Since I was just like a teenager, I was watching Theo Angelopoulos movies. And I was like in love with those kind of movies. And you cannot see Angelopoulos movies without hearing, you know, Eleni Karaindrou's composing, and her music. So when I was writing this, the final year of rewriting and revising this screenplay and getting close to making it, I was only listening to Eleni Karaindrou's music. In my car, in my office, and like that. Then I, when I finished this filming and editing and everything, I was, you know, very accidentally I was - they invited me to become a member of Jury into Saloniki Film Festival in Greece. I went there, and suddenly I encountered a person who was a friend of Eleni Karaindrou and she just said, "I'm very close friends with her." And I said, "You know what? I made a film. I want her to see this film." And I knew that Eleni is not working, like almost a decade, because after the death of Angelopoulos, which was very tragic. He, you know, he died in the, in the movie set. You know, during a, you know, making a film. It was a car accident. You know, it crashed and it was very, very sad. So he passed away and Eleni decided not to work after that at all. So, all the offers in the world, he was refusing it. So she asked, "How come this person, this Iranian friend of yours, wants me to watch this film?" And I said, "Just tell her, 'because I was when I wanted to get in the mood for writing this film, I was listening to your music and that's all.'" And she said, "That's it. The, the biggest reason that I can watch this film and see." She saw the movie and something weird happened. Because today she loves my film more than my, you know, myself. You know, me myself. Yeah! And I don't, still don't know why, but she still calls me and say, "I saw it again," and she cries on the phone. And yeah. And she said, "You know what? You know what, I'm going to make this music for you." And I said, "Can I ask you the price?" and say, "No, because you cannot afford me. You don't have - I will make this music for you for free 'cause I love your film. I love..." Yeah! [audience applause] "I love your film, and you made me come back after Angelopoulos. This was the movie that encouraged me to come back to the movies because it's about humanity. It's about love. It's about, you know, all these things and like that." So she made this, you know, music. She's now, you know, ECM, the very... incredible, prestigious company, music company, released the CD. It's becoming the album of the year. And she is traveling all around the world with this "Bomb, a Love Story" concert. And I'm very happy and I'm receiving lots of emails and lots of, you know, letters from all the people around the world saying, "Thank you for bringing Eleni Karaindrou back to the world of cinema music." Yeah. [audience applause] [Malcolm:] It's a beautiful score. It really is. [Maadi:] It doesn't have anything to do with me. The reason that I'm saying, I'm very thankful of Eleni herself. [Malcolm:] So let's turn it over to the audience. We're gonna have mics on either side, so just raise your hand and I'll call on you, and we'll bring a mic to you. So let's go right down here in the front row. I want to make our work studies run. We'll bring a mic over to you. [Woman in audience, in Persian] [Maadi:] The first question was about if I was inspired by watching "Malena", by... Giuseppe Tornatore. No, I wasn't. I love that film. I was inspired by many other films but not "Malena" for this specific film. I mean, I was, when watching "Malena" gives me lots of other impressions, you know, as a young boy. I have lots of other things watching, you know, loving "Malena" but not today It didn't have anything, you know, specially do with this movie. About your question - second question is: Yes, I didn't plan this. But you're right. That's a very good thing. Because once somebody else, a critic, you know, in Switzerland, they told me that it seems that you have this passion about the relationships, in broken relationships and the miracle that you need in it. And I realize, yes, I'm thinking of these kind of things just like for last couple of years. My next film will not be something like that. It's a totally different thing, but I would love to be a person who consider myself as somebody who concerns about the relationships and not between men and women. About commitments, about, you know, things like that. You know what? To me love is a very important thing. Today, we don't have much love in movies like years before or like the years that we were watching like "Gone with the Wind" or "Casablanca" or Billy Wilder movies and like that. So it doesn't have anything to do about there's no love in lives today. Maybe back then it wasn't like that, like what we were watching in the movies. You know, that much love, like that too. But what I believe is, let's make a fantasy, and an ideal world with love, at least in the movies. That's where we can find love, if we cannot find it in the real love. If there are lots of hatreds, if there are a lot of despises, if there are lot of enemies and trevings [?] and bombs and wars and like that? To me, I don't take just like filmmaking very seriously. To me, filmmaking and films are only, not only the main - the most important thing about filmmaking is bring people out of their home for two hours and detach these people from their daily disasters and problems and, you know, hardness, and like things like that. So why we cannot, you know, why not we give them more love and fantasies and like that? So I'm very happy that I did it in those two films. And I will do something else like that which I just can't find it in movie and cinema, and that's why I became in this industry. [Malcolm:] Another question. Let's go right here. Gentleman in the blue shirt, right here. [Man in audience, in Persian] [Man in audience:] I try to ask in English. We know you came to the cinema industry with scriptwriting and you're professional scriptwriter. So in end of the movie, I'm interested, so you have a four - three or four script writing adviser. Dr. Namas Amani [?], Amir Reza Koohestani, another one I for- and two other one, I forget. I wanna know why you invite and make this group. And are you a believer to group working together? And how these peoples helped you for making this script because two of them, I mean, Reza Koohestani and Namas Amani [?] came from theater and they are famous for PS writing? Thank you. [Maadi:] Actually, I believe in, I think, there are only - there's only one scriptwriter. And the screenwriter is only one person. But I myself, do believe in consulting with other peoples, especially with another woman always. Since it's a relation between a man and women, I always consult with a woman always and I ask her to take her side. For not letting me to fall in this pi- you know, into a pitfall, just like being very, you know, taking the man side, or like that. So. Whatever I make, I discuss with lots of people. I believe in this. Somebody says, said to me like 20 years ago when I started this, "Don't tell your stories to the people, they will steal it for you, from you," or something like that. But I today, I advise to other people as well, that you have to tell your story. You have to share your story before you make it. And each people by listening to it, they will add something definitely to it. There are some peoples here where, just like some of these advisers for me as well. Those people were professionals like Amir Reza Koohestani and Namas Amini[?] And they helped me a lot. But not only those. I can tell you whatever I wrote and I still am working. I started writing 20 years ago. I don't remember any single day till today that I haven't write. Whatever happened in my life, the worst days of my life, I wrote. Maybe like two minutes or three minutes, but I write every day. And every day, writing some of these days, it's just like speaking on the phone with some other people. I have lots of friends that I called them and I say, "Let me tell you about this scene. You remember this and that I told you, like a year ago?" And he or she says, "Yes." I said, "I change it this way." I love to share it, and you cannot - I cannot make anything with, you know, without the help of the others. And I'm very honored and I say it proudly, that I always get help from some other people. [audience applause] [Malcolm:] Let's go over here on the aisle. [Man #2 in audience:] We've had the great pleasure of seeing you work with one of the great filmmakers of our time, Asghar Farhadi, who among other things he does brilliantly, is symbolism. And I was wondering if you could elaborate on the symbolism in this movie with the pomegranate and the onion, and any other lessons you may have taken from him, in the making of this film. [Maadi:] I didn't get the question. I, wasn't... [Man #2, almost inaudible:] symbolism? [Maadi:] Okay [Man #2, almost inaudible:] the pomegranate and the onion. [Maadi:] Yeah. Yeah what I like to say working with Asghar Farhadi gave me more important thing than getting these symbolisms or something like that. You maybe, you're, you're just like, correct. I don't want to deny that. But, I learned a lot of bigger and more important things by working with Asghar Farhadi. There are lots of, you know, more important things as a filmmaker or as a human and above all those things as a human, you can learn from somebody like Asghar Farhadi. I'm very happy to be friend with him and still be in touch with him and learn from him and some other filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami and like some other film, great filmmakers. About those things, I don't know. Maybe it comes from someplace, you know as a filmmaker you never understand where it came from. People tell me, for example, "I saw something like that in some movie." Maybe I saw that movie. Maybe I got it from Asghar or somebody else, but I like to insist and repeat again: There are lots of more important thing you can learn from people like Asghar Farhadi which makes you a better human, better, you know, filmmaker. And a better artist to have, you know, special look to the society around you. [Malcolm:] I just want to jump in, because I kept thinking about Kiarostami's early documentaries the, the, with the school children. He's been a lot of time shooting, you know, stories about children, in general, throughout his career. What was it like for you working with children as a director? There is that amazing scene between you and the boy, when you take his test - his, I mean, that's a really raw moment for him. What was - I mean, did you look at any of those Kiarostami films, you know, documentaries? And then how do I - how was it working with children for this film? Let's split it to two questions. One is about Kiarostami. To, to just, I just like to tell you that whenever I want to do something artistic in my life, I watch Kiarostami's movies. Whatever. It doesn't matter. If I want to make a movie, I detach myself from ev- you know, lots of other things like, I don't listen to music, just like randomly musics. I don't watch movies. But I will see like five, six of Abbas Kiarostami movies. It make me, you know, motivated and more feel like an artist. And to be, to become a more important artist. And it helps me in that way. I still cannot use the past... you know, what you call it? The past verb... What? Past sentence or verbs about Kiarostami, 'cause I don't think that he's - He's with us and we still - whatever we do - if I'm here, people like me are here, huge part of it is because what Abbas Kiarostami and his generation did for us and I owe him a lot. I was - I had a beautiful relationship with him, very, very beautiful that I'm trying to do something for him with his son maybe in the future. And that's what I was just saying. Yes, definitely. I learned a lot from Kiarostami. And, and his view to the world and to the arts which is very phenomenon. So about working with the kids. I just want to tell you first of all, working with kids: the most important thing is to cast a good kid. Casting a good kid is a very difficult thing. I didn't find - I was - I had just like two weeks to cast all the people in the film but I didn't find anyone for this kid, for the, for the boy. So it took me like a month and a half to find him. And when I was disappointed in not finding him, because I, we, I saw all the, the kids in the schools and the film schools and like that. Then I went myself to the schools and I sat in the schools. I went from this school to that school, to that school, and I was observing all these kids. I was asking them, bring that one. Bring that one. Bring that one, and like that. And then I was testing them. Then I saw this one and I felt in love with this person. And I just like he is so smart, is so, so a very nice kid. His family is very important. Who's the family, who's a parent something like that. And yeah. And the key is Farhadi told me - this is what I learned from Asghar in "About Elly": That you must not let these kids know what's happening. You know, you have to lie to them sometimes. You have to tell them a different story. So that's what I did some parts with this kid, that I was telling him, you know, false stories, you know, incorrect happenings. That you're going to do this you're smiling because of this reason, because of that reason, and that's, that's what happens with, with the kids. [Malcolm:] Another question. Let's go, we have a gentleman way in the back here. Bring up the mic. [Maadi:] I think it's getting boring, huh? Let's speak Farsi a little bit. Let's gossip. [Man #3 in audience:] Well, for his sake, I'll go with English. First of all, congratulations. For those of us who lived during the war, I think you have captured that period of time very vividly. Congratulations. I was wondering how old you were, and if you actually experienced that yourself? Second question is how long did it take you to shoot the film? And third one, is do you prefer being a director or an actor? [Maadi:] The first question, I know why you're asking 'cause you want to know if I was the same guy who felt in love with that kid. That's always the people who are asking. I was the same age. I was 12 years old, now I'm 48 years old. So, yes, I was the same age and I was in a basement like that. I experienced all of those moments and it's still, you know, is in my mind. And, but I didn't fall in love with a girl in the basement. I felt in love with a girl outside of the basement. [audience laughs] I like that. But, yeah, your, your second question, it took like 50 something days of shooting, like almost two months, but with a great preparation which is, which matters very much. If you have to be very precise on the schedules and like that. I have a very beautiful crew which I constantly work with, you know, like three, four movies in a row. I work with them. I don't change that much people in my, you know, in my crew. So and then for that, for the third question, I cannot tell you. I still am thinking of this that which one do I consider more? As an actor or as a screenwriter or as a director, but... I can tell you that I prefer directing. And because directing comes from writing. I direct whatever I write so it's, it has to be my passion. It has to be something in my heart that I direct. Creating is more, you know, interesting for me. To build in a world to tell a story like that. I was very lucky and [...] and privileged to work as an actor in some good movies, too. If it's a movie like "A Separation" or "About Elly" or "Abad va Yek Rooz" or maybe a movie like "Camp X-Ray" like that, I would love to. But other than that I still am waiting to direct the stories that I have in my mind. [Malcolm:] Time for a few more questions. So let's go to right here on the aisle. Yeah, right here on the aisle. Is there a mic coming over here? Where's the mics? Please. [Maadi:] Directing is a strange thing, you know. Still waiting for this gentleman to ask. I was outside now while you were watching the film, 'cause I saw this film before. And I was outside with a friend of mine, I was speaking. Then a friend of mine came to me and said, "Oh my God, there is a woman passing out." You know, not passing out. He was just like collapsed in the bathroom and she felt very bad. And I was just like, "wow". I think, people were running with water and like that and I said - Then they said, "that because she became very emotional with watching this film." And I felt bad, because I was happy. I said, "Yes!" [audience laughter] So it's a cruel thing, you know. Okay, I went to, you know, I went to her and I and I realized she is one of my students. She's a very good actress as well. So sometimes you feel like you like to make people to feel like that, or you, you know, you feel bad about it. And that's what happened to me just like minutes ago. So. [Man #4 in audience:] Thank you. First of all, I have to tell you that, this was, the music in this film was probably the most evocative pieces of music I ever heard in a Persian language film. Secondly. My question was what were your political challenges in making of this film? In terms of content. [Maadi:] Yep political challenges, you know. [Maadi:] Whatever you do in countries like Iran and Middle East and countries like that, even if it's not a political movies, they consider it as a political issue. There's a very brilliant poet, the Polish poet, Szymborska. I bet you know her she's a brilliant poet. She has a beautiful poem that she says, "Whatever you don't do political, they consider it as a political because you're not doing it political." So my political view doesn't really matter here in this film, because I'm, I was trying to say something more about human. And human all around the world is a human. I travel a lot with lots of my film around the world and I realized that at the end, what matter is love, humanity. You know and these things doesn't matter, what's the problem, you know, my - I don't like political movies myself, even to watch them, let alone to participate in making them. So what I just like to mention about what you asked this, when I was a small kid, I remember that they were taking us, like seven years old, eight years old, seven o'clock in the morning in the queues to say just like, "Down to USA. Down to this nation that - down to the other nation." And to spreading just like hatred and, you know, just like everyone is enemies, and like that. Today, I have a son, seven years old and I don't want him to do something like that. And that's the reason that I thought that I'd like to say, say it in my movie. I just like to tell you a funny story. Once I was in a friend, friend's house. Then his son came, just like he was seven years old. And he came to the home. I was with this family like 10 years ago. And he said, "Mom, what has Ismael? You know, what did Ismael do?" And his mom said, "Who's Ismael?" He said, "I don't know, Ismael, every morning we are saying, 'Down with Ismael, down with Ismael.'" He was just like saying instead of "Down with Israel". He was saying that because in Iran we say, "Israel is might [?]" He didn't even know after a year saying it. He didn't even know what he's saying. So that's funny. You know, that's, that's the thing which is funny. If I say something like that in a movie, you will consider it definitely as a political issue. Which it's not. It just like something. Let's, let's get rid of this political issue. Let's, let's stay more close to human issues on something like that. By the way, I'd like to say that there are like when I see in this crowd there are like some actresses and like beautiful actress and actors, which I enjoy very much from watching them just like here and there: Necar, and Melika Foroutan and Nic Karzai [?], which I love to say that I would love to work with you guys one day in the future definitely, and I will. And Armimi Lati [?] too, yeah. Armimi Lati [?] too. I would like to say, you don't know how does it look from here to watch you guys from here. [Malcolm:] Alright, so we have one more question and then we'll go. Let's, let's go over here. [Maadi:] Of course, the one and only Sussan Deyhim is over there too, the beautiful singer. [audience applause] [Woman #2 in audience:] I had a quick question, from a no-name Iranian sensibility, but there are lots of things, that where the same piece as Marjane, Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis". The school, the bombings, the [solemnest]'s fear of self referentiality or photo-autobiography that I would like to see if could be described by you. [Maadi:] I saw that beautiful film from Marjane. I'm not sure if I got your question, but I just love to say that, each of us like me and Marjane, this generation, we experience those days ourselves. So, when you're like 20 years old, you're not a filmmaker. You don't think of making it. You just think about it. When you're like 25 years old or above like that, you start to think of telling this story then when you become a filmmaker like Marjane and I, we become just like for example, now like 40-something years old and you tell the story, just like in the same time, maybe like that. What I like to say is, doesn't matter what we make. There's a beautiful saying about moviemaking and films, which I do believe very much and I'd like to say it right now. They say, "Whatever we as a filmmaker make, is just like 50% of the film. The next 50% will be made by the audience." So that's the reason whatever you saw today is totally different with the film that the gentleman beside you has seen. You make it in your mind with your experience, upon your nostalgias, upon your experiences. You may sometimes some very small item may remind you as a very tragic and very suffering thing. And that may makes you to dislike this film. You come out and say, "You know what? I hate this film." Because you had an experience which the gentleman beside you didn't have it. So what we do is we make the film and we put it in front of you. And you will make the rest in your own mind. That's what we, I mean me and Marjane, and lots of other people has done. [Malcolm:] Well, I hope we can have you back when your next film is completed. Or just come back any time really, this has been fantastic. Well, love to have you any time. So, thank you very much for being here and thank you for joining us as well. [audience applause]