How was the film received in Iran?
The reception in the Kurdish towns was tremendous. The film ended up being one of the top three box office hits ever shown in Kurdistan. Most of the Iranian film critics also liked the film better than my first feature. Have you shown the film in Iraqi Kurdistan? I had planned to re-create scenes from the war, and I needed support from the military and the government to do that. In Iran, we don’t get any free assistance from the government. To finance the film, I had to sell my camera and the domestic rights of the film to Farabi Cinema Foundation. What made the shooting difficult? Yes, and it was well received there as well. Did you use mostly non-actors again? Yes. Most of them had never seen a movie camera before. The only exception was Saeed Mohammadi who plays the young teacher, who had appeared in other films and already garnered a reputation in Kurdistan as the Iranian Al Pacino! Did you use any Iraqi Kurds in the film as cast or crew members? If so, how did you work with them?
