In Iranian cinema, all the lying takes place before making the film. In order to be able to make the film, you have to lie.

I am really bothered when I see my friends facing problems back in Iran, but I tell them that not all the doors are shut.

In Kurdistan, there's a lot of hardship - a lot of wars, a lot of bitter and difficult lifestyles. And witnessing all those made me a director.

If I hadn't turned out to be a filmmaker, I would have been a musician.

You can't make money without selling something real. You can't make something real without first imagination manifesting itself in your head. You can't have imagination without surrendering yourself to an idea that you want to create something of value to other human beings.

Whether as living humans or as mythological figures, ancestors have always played an important role in the African popular and literary imagination. Sometimes, as in Amos Tutuola's famous short novels, they directly influence events. More often, as in the works of Chinua Achebe, both living and dead ancestors are sages offering valuable advice.

There was a time before I felt I was a real writer, when I was a yarn spinner and I just wanted to tell story until it was over. But then there came a time where I was like, 'No, I want to understand something through writing this that I might have not understood before. I want people to come away with something to think about.'

It's what you don't see that keeps you on the edge of your seat in any kind of film - leave it to the imagination of the viewer.