Once an 82-year-old Iranian female painter told me, “Artists should be brave, and always challenge themselves.” Since then I have always thought about what can be a challenge for a painter and for a filmmaker. While making this project, I finally experienced what she spoke about. Honestly, I enjoyed the process of making this film with all of its challenges, and because of that, I enjoyed the result even more.

We always experience a secure life. We can easily study, eat and travel around. For us, it’s a basic right, but after visiting Afghanistan where you have to struggle for such basic rights, I feel how much of a blessing they are. To study, to have warm clothes in winter, to have a place to stay is a dream for so many people over there. But that’s not everything. They have to struggle to stay alive, too.

With this film, I wanted to show a typical problem that Afghans face even now. In our countries, we can easily travel from one city to another, and it’s difficult to imagine that there are still places in the 21st century where people have to accept the risk of death if they want to travel to another city. We have got used to hearing about these issues from Afghanistan and it has become kind of normal in our minds, and even the media has stopped feeling sympathy for them. For that reason, I choose to tell a dramatic story in a comic mood, to break these stereotypes. I believe that the genre of comedy is the best way to treat this subject because it’s easier for people to understand and accept tough issues when you wrap it in a joke.

阿米尔·马苏德·索海利(Amir Masoud Soheili)是一位获得国际奖项的短片导演、电影节导演和程序员。他是2015年7位最受尊敬的伊朗短片制作人之一。

马苏德·索海利1988年出生于伊朗马什哈德。他在印度尼西亚和韩国学习电影。仅凭借他的第二部短片《蓝眼睛男孩》(2014)，他就获得了140多个国际电影节的20个国际奖项，他是巴基斯坦伊斯兰堡“亚洲和平电影节”的联合创始人和创意总监，也是土耳其伊斯坦布尔“改变视角国际电影节”的评委。2017年，他还担任伊朗马什哈德首届“安全社区”国际电影节的导演。

本片从阿富汗向亚洲电影节提交。