Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami has announced that “the American cinema is not a standard for the quality of cinema and cultural productions in the world's other countries.”
Kiarostami, the head of the international jury of the Cairo International Film Festival, told a press conference at the Egyptian Opera House Tuesday that “regrettably, the American cinema has become a model for film makers throughout the world and has established a style for itself that created fantasy in the audience.”
“If we want to know what cinema is, we should go 30 years back to see our stance towards this new type of prevailing films. We can see that this type will not last for 30 more years,” the Iranian director added.
Responding to a question regarding censorship of cinema in Iran, Kiarostami said, “we should accept the fact that there is censorship because this exists throughout the world, but a true artist can present his work.”
“Many directors have tried to cover up their weakness by blaming censorship," the jury head claimed, adding that “difficulties are there in our life and our task is to overcome them.”
In the course of a speech about his cinema career, learning from others and a comparison between him and the Italian director, Vitorio De Cika, Kiarostami said, “it is difficult to find similarities between my films and his films in general because neither he nor his films are my example.”
“I consider there to be a similarity between us in that no one can be close to reality except through lying. We received education in our schools in different ways and our ways of living are different. I think lying is part of a human being in order to be able to live. Sometimes a human being is compelled not to reveal the truth, but to hide it,” he added – Albawaba.com
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