Movies

Asghar Farhadi: I have chosen to raise awareness with my cinema and not with statements

Cannes (France), Jul 14 (EFE / EPA) .- (Camera: Marco Álvarez) Iranian Asghar Farhadi likes to stir consciences with his cinema and not with statements that can soon be forgotten. This is what he does again with "A hero", a very well received film in the Cannes competition with which he returns to his country after the Spanish experience of "Everybody knows". FOOTAGE FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE, INCLUDING ASGHAR FARHADI (DIRECTOR AND SCREENWRITER) AND AMIR JADIDI (ACTOR); FILM TEAM PRESENTATION: AMIR JADIDI (ACTOR), ASGHAR FARHADI (DIRECTOR AND SCRIPTWRITER) AND ALEXANDRE MALLET-GUY (PRODUCER); ASHGAR FARHADI (DIRECTOR AND SCRIPTWRITER) AND AMIR JADIDI (ACTOR) POSE IN FRONT OF THE CAMERAS; ASHGAR FARHADI SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS.SOUNDBITES BY FARHADI TRANSLATION- If I hadn't made that movie [Les enfants de Belle Ville], as you suggest, and had adopted a more social attitude ... If I had written a text ... That is not my means of expression. I am not one of those who use that way of expressing myself. I express my thoughts through the cinema, I like to ask questions with my cinema. I feel that I have a greater impact and despite all the problems that we have and we all know, this is the means of expression that I have chosen.- We face extremism, dogmatism ... We cannot become extremist or dogmatic ourselves. We cannot allow ourselves to become what we criticize.- The other important issue is reputation and honor. Reputation is a very important concept in Iranian society. By reputation I mean the collective image of an individual. Perhaps it is something relevant in your societies as well. In Iran it is essential and there are people willing to lose everything to safeguard their reputation. The image that society has of you. The tranquility and feeling of confidence that comes from knowing that you have a good reputation is such that to maintain it you live with an ambivalence of your own life that arises from the image you give and from your true life.- But the image that we see in social networks of events in someone's life and that resemble other images in networks contaminate the entire existence of a person. Someone who does a good deed is focused on social networks and generates admiration in the community to which they belong. And it also creates expectations about all other aspects of your life and your environment. But if the next day you smoke a cigarette in front of your sister, social media will ask you to stop. Therefore he has to become irreproachable and perfect in all aspects of his life.- Because the atmosphere is so dense, we could say oppressive, social networks allow creating a space in which one can speak. In a society where you can express yourself freely, you don't need social networks so much.- Viewers who are going to see a movie do not need a passport stating whether they are a man or a woman or what their nationality is. They become one, a single person watching the movie (even if there are 100 viewers). It is one of the greatest characteristics of cinema: that each person can create their own connection with the film and those limits do not exist in the art world.- If a day comes when we can live in a world without rules and without forbidden questions, I believe that we will be before the beginning of a real change.