The Sarajevo Film Festival’s (SFF) “Coffee with” program hosted the Iranian double-Oscar winner and film-maker Asghar Farhadi who came to Sarajevo as the SFF’s jury president a the director of the “Everybody knows” film recorded in Spain with Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem as the main roles.

His psychological thrilled “Everybody knows” was shown Sunday at the SFF’s ‘Raiffeisen’ Summer Cinema. The film is his first artwork shot in Spanish language. Previously, it opened the Cannes Film Festival and it was shown at Cannes’ competition program.

“In this film, I gave each of them (actors) a key on how to act in it. When I talked with Ricardo Darin about his character, he asked me why the character can’t make independent decisions. It’s because he’s a religious person, and it’s a cliché that religious people can make difficult decisions,” Farhadi noted. “I wanted to have a level of paradox in that character. He is a religious person full of doubts and scepticism.”

He stressed that he tried to give the actors as much information about the past of the characters they would play.

In his opinion, there is a certain harmony between the traditional and modern way of life, in Spain.

“Geographically, Spain is located in the South of Europe and it has a certain southern spirit with which the people in Iran can relate. At the beginning of the shoot I was a bit sceptical because when I went there, I felt I wasn’t at home,” Farhadi said and added that during his stay there, he pointed to the differences and similarities between Spain and Iran.

The Sarajevo Film Festival began on August 10 and it will last until August 17.