Variety interviews Iranian director Mani Haqiqi

The US entertainment magazine Variety has conducted an interview with Iranian director Mani Haqiqi.

The following is an excerpt of the interview with Haqiqi who has taken part at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival in Germany.

"Now he’s back in competition with black comedy 'Pig', in which a serial killer is decapitating famous Iranian directors and blacklisted filmmaker Hassan is upset that he isn’t considered important enough to be one of them," the magazine wrote.

"The main thing I want to make clear is that 'Pig' is a comedy; it’s a parody of the situation. It’s never the case with this film that anything directly signifies or references anything specific in Iran. Everything [in the film] has gone through a filter of humor and irony and parody to get there," Haqiqi said.

The director noted that the film is referencing some things, but it’s not referencing a person, or a group of people or anything like that... The film is referencing the kind of mood that has been dominating Iranian film industry and culture.

"This guy feels like he’s been sidelined or disregarded by the killer….He’s beginning to feel like, ‘Maybe I’m not as important as I thought I was….That’s the kind of narcissism that’s comic and is at the center of the film," he said of the leading role in 'Pig'.

Haqiqi added that as all black comedies must, it takes this sort of dark turn, and then the film becomes a little more serious and complicated.

Born in 1969, Haqiqi is an Iranian filmmaker, screenwriter as well as actor and the grandson of the writer and filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan.

MG/AG