Lifestyle FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2016 Asghar Farhadi on war, peace and writing from the heart sghar Farhadi stepped out into the biting happy that they were now speaking about cul- film at age 13 in a youth cinema club. A theater winter Tehran air clutching his Oscar, tak- ture. I had this impression that it was the people studies graduate of the University of Tehran, he Aen aback by the huge crowd waiting at of the two countries that were in communica- went on to read for a masters in stage direction the airport to crown him 's next national tion rather than the politicians talking." The film- at Tarbiat Modares University and started work hero. Cinema in the Islamic republic had been maker once again finds himself as a cultural go- immediately, directing television series he him- winning critical plaudits for decades but had between, representing Iran in Hollywood with self had written. failed to break into the mainstream until the cel- his latest film, "The Salesman," picked by his In 2002, he wrote and directed his first fea- ebrated auteur brought home the country's first country as its 2017 entry for the foreign film ture film, "Dancing in the Dust," before winning ever Academy Award in 2012. "I tried to go sur- Oscar. acclaim for "Fireworks Wednesday" a vivid por- reptitiously, precisely to avoid any kind of scene, trait of marriage against the backdrop of a and somehow they had managed to glean what Visceral Persian New Year. day I was arriving and there were crowds at the A taut, visceral morality tale about a married airport," Farhadi remembers. couple thrown into turmoil after the wife is 'Closer to peace' "The numbers were so huge that I began to attacked in their home, it picked up two major Psychological drama "About Elly" followed in be concerned about crowd control." The best awards at the . As with "A 2009 before "A Separation" burst into the inter- foreign language win for Farhadi's "A Separation," Farhadi's new film presents a national public consciousness, winning best film Separation" prompted nationwide celebration nuanced Tehran that looks beyond the firebrand at the 61st Berlinale and going on to pick up as millions of Iranians burned the midnight oil to mullahs and morality police seen on Western prizes at festivals across the world. As well as watch the director, then 40, accepting the televisions and into the lives of ordinary people. winning the best foreign language film Oscar award. It came as huge morale boost to many Farhadi doesn't feel he has to address American and Golden Globe, it was nominated by the Iranians whose lives were overshadowed by civil misconceptions about Iranian society, but he Academy for its screenplay, earning the director unrest following the Arab Spring in nearby recognizes that his work is becoming something a place among the filmmaking elite. Farhadi's Egypt and Tunisia, the ever-present threat of of a dialogue between his own people and US work has been praised for showing life in all its Asghar Farhadi conflict and crippling economic sanctions. popular culture. moral complexity, not judging his characters but "It was a period of time when politicians both "When I sit and down and start writing a ing it, I should maybe do some extra things," he inviting audiences to draw their own conclu- in Iran and the United States were talking about script I don't say to myself this is a film that's says. "I approach it thinking the audience could sions. — AFP war," Farhadi tells AFP on a promotional visit to going to be viewed by foreign audiences and, be anyone anywhere and I write what my heart the US ahead of the awards season. "I was so because foreign audiences are going to be see- dictates." Farhadi, now 44, made his first short Zaradasht Ahmed's 'Nowhere to Hide' takes top prize at IDFA

lthough the documentary world had plenty of recent upsets Other awards to concern itself with - not least the rise of nationalism across Best Dutch Documentary AEu