About what inspired him to make the film: “I was inspired by most dictators, Saddam Hussein for example? Libya’s Gadhafi, the Shah of Iran, under whom I was a political prisoner for five years; Khomeini and Hamnei from Iran, all dictators, your dictators, the Georgian dictator. But this is not a story about a dictator. This is a story about violence and non-violence, the good and bad sides of a revolution.”
About what we have learned from past revolutions: “Each revolution seems to bring a new dictator to power and this is the responsibility of the people of the respective country. If you don’t think straight, the revolution will not bring paradise, but a new dictatorship.”
About how long he has prepared the film: “The story is 8 years old. I was arrested at 17 years of age and I spent 5 years in a political prison. Eight years ago, I visited the presidential palace in Kabul that was destroyed and that inspired me. For 8 years my wife and I worked on the script and we were particularly active during the Arab Spring.”
About why governments are afraid of artists? “They are jealous. Also, revolutions don’t remain marked in history if they are not mixed with art. Putin, for example, is afraid of these two girls that sing in a church, because he knows people love art and artists make a mockery of dictators. Once they threw a bomb while we were shooting, a person was killed instead of me, 20 were injured. In 2009 and 2010 the Iranian dictator had sent terrorists to kill me. Artists shed light on darkness, while the politicians want the darkness to remain.
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