- [press conference for Holy Spider (2022) at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival] We didn't do the movie to highlight women's conditions in Iran. We didn't do the movie to do activist work, but it does take up that thing. Is it limited to Iranian society? I don't think so. Have we come a long way in Europe to get to a more equal place, to a less violent place, less violence against women, less misogyny? I think so. Is it enough? I don't think so.
- [Cannes press conference for Holy Spider (2022)] I'm not a big fan of serial killers. I'm not a big fan of serial killer movies either. I'm not so interested and invested in crime, solving crime. The fact that the killings happened.....I was following the news like everyone else. And then I think where it really became something else and became interesting for me was when a certain segment of the Iranian society and press and authorities started talking about this guy as some sort of selfless hero that has been sacrificing himself for the good of society and that whole conversation, even starting that conversation, I think, was very......interesting. And I think that's when it became more than a story of some twisted guy killing women, that it became a story of that serial-killer society that we're talking about.
- [press conference for The Apprentice (2024) at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival] There was this very famous press conference with a compatriot of mine, Lars von Trier, here, some years ago and somehow he ended up saying that he understands Adolf Hitler and then it got worse and it got worse and nobody could save him! But there is some truth to that in that these are human beings. The most despicable monster you can think of, the most reprehensible person in history also liked a dog or fell for someone or was nice to somebody at some point. And if there is an ideology for the movie, it's a humanist ideology - it is about taking these people who are icons, who are hated/loved, down to earth and deconstructing that mythological image into earthly human beings. With that comes understanding, with that comes sympathy. That doesn't necessarily mean you forgive everything they did, but there comes understanding and sympathy and if there is a cathartic mission for the movie, that would be it.
- [Cannes press conference for The Apprentice (2024)] I don't necessarily think that this is a movie that he [Donald Trump] would dislike - I don't necessarily think he would like it. I think he would be surprised. Like I said before, I would be happy to go and meet him wherever he wants and then talk about the context of the movie, have a screening and have a chat afterwards.
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