Asghar Farhadi on why he is attracted to human stories

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi was working on another story but he abandoned that to work on his Paris-set drama 'The Past', which is enjoying a similar acclaim that his 2011 Oscar-award winner 'A Separation' received.
'The Past', which is Iran's entry to the Oscars this year, was screened to a packed house at the ongoing Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) here with Farhadi receiving a standing ovation from the audience.
Starring 'The Artist' star Berenice Bejo, Tahar Rahim of 'A Prophet' and Iranian actor Ali Mosaffa, the film follows a man who returns to Paris from Tehran after four years to finalise his divorce.

"I was working on another story with Yasmina Reza and even spent some months in Berlin. One day, I was sitting in a cafe in Paris and I told her of this memory about a friend. It was a real story and I realised that I wanted to make this story and not the one I was working on," Farhadi told PTI in an interview on the sidelines of the festival where he is heading the India Gold jury.
Like his globally acclaimed 'A Separation' which went on to collect more than 60 awards, his latest film too traces the emotional map of a family.

Speaking with the help of an interpreter, Farhadi says 'The Past', which will be released in India too, is different from his previous work despite having divorce at the center of the story.

Farhadi, who became the first Iranian filmmaker to win the Academy award, however, says it would be hard for him to explain why he is attracted to such stories.
"It is coming from my unconscious. When you are talking about the family, the house has the real meaning. In my films, the house becomes a character. This is why people are always in the house in my stories."

But the clue may be hidden in his childhood. Iran and Iraq were at war when Farhadi was growing up and the only films available on TV were war movies which made him long for cinema that was not about war. Farhadi believes early Japanese movies like 'Tokyo Story' had an influence on him.