Iranian film director Asghar Farhadi on US travel ban and upcoming project

He tells us why he had to boycott the latest Academy Awards, and about working with Penelope Cruz and Javier Barden in a new Spanish family film

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman won the Oscar this year in the Best Foreign Language Film category. His other films include A Separation and The Past in France. Sipa via AP Photo

Fresh from his latest Academy Award success for The Salesman, Iranian film director Asghar Farhadi gave a masterclass this week at Qumra, which was part of the Doha Film Festival.

His audience was intrigued to talk to the man who won his first Oscar in 2012 for A Separation. But, it was his latest film nod and the controversy surrounding it that was, perhaps, of most interest to attendees.

In the lead up to film’s night of nights, Farhadi found himself in one of the hottest topics of conversation across the globe, due to the fact that he had opted out of the attending the Oscars, as a result of the travel ban on Iranian nationals and residents of six other majority Muslim countries by the United States.

And while the ban was lifted in time for the February 27 ceremony, Farhadi chose to stand by his decision to boycott the awards, claiming the ban was “unjust”.

When asked to contrast his two Oscar-campaign experiences, Farhadi said: “It was different this time.” The 44-year-old added that even before the ban was imposed by US president Donald Trump, he had made a decision not to campaign as heavily as he did five years ago.

“My distributor in America was different this time, so I had less occasion to go to the States and do promotion ... the film was already known and people [had] already seen it ... so there was less need for me to go and present it.

“Originally I was supposed to be at the ceremony, that was my first intention, but then because of the travel ban, I made this decision not to go and [instead] watch the ceremony online.”

Early on, the general consensus was that German comedy Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade would win the Foreign Language gong, that is until US president Donald Trump executed his order. From then on, the opinion was that the reverberations of the travel ban, and the political fallout somehow pushed The Salesman to the fore.

Farhadi is adamant, though, that his decision had nothing to do with winning or losing the award. Indeed, as he explains, he couldn’t second-guess such a response. “I just reacted spontaneously to this action [from Trump] and said what I thought about it – that is when I made the decision not to go. To try to assume what the criteria is for which people to vote for one film over another is quite complicated – I don’t know how or why people choose one film over another.”

Farhadi delivered his masterclass to his Doha audience on Tuesday via Skype. He is currently in Spain shooting his new film, a Spanish-language movie starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

“They are the stars with whom I have started working with. I just get along with really well – they are warm and friendly people and I’m enjoying the time that I spend with them,” he says. “We have a very easy friendly and relaxed relationship, and as we all happen to be enthusiastic about the script, that is a good way to start a project.”

Farhadi previously made The Past in France, a film whose prominent character is Iranian, but he says his latest is totally Spanish with Spanish actors, and that shooting will continue through the summer with the final product expected to be ready for next year's Cannes Film Festival.

Farhadi would not say much about the film beyond it being about a family – he says there will be no mention of the current travel ban or contemporary politics.

“There are two things I’m sure I will never do in my life,” he adds. “One is making political movies – I don’t like to see the world through the narrow view of politics. The other thing I’m sure I will never do is deliver messages through cinema. Messages are not valid anymore. Our films should ask questions rather than have messages or give answers.”