Quotes

You can imagine how hugely debated Saving Private Ryan (1998) was in Germany, and I think the only reason people were able to get into it was because of Tom Hanks. In Europe, people have even forgotten that Forrest Gump (1994) was an American.

[on A Hologram for the King (2016)] Zahra could really go to the west and live there, but she, like many of the people I've met in Saudi Arabia when I went there, they have one leg in and one leg outside of the culture. They really love their heritage, their home, and their home country, and they have not only a broken-up relationship with their culture and their cultural history, but at the same time, they have had the opportunity to visit the west and other places, not only the west, but the rest of the world, and they live in the online community. So, they're just more open-minded than their societies are, and they live this kind of dual life of just waiting for the government to catch up. And they will, they say, 'We don't need a revolution, it's just going to be a mess. We just need to be patient and there's going to be more and more people like us.' [2016]

[on A Hologram for the King (2016)] There's always something human and beautiful about him [Tom Hanks], no matter what you do, no matter how stupid he [the character] behaves. And in the movie, that's what you need, you need a hero to be able to misbehave and you still stay connected with him, which is what he creates. It's a miracle how he does it. I think even if he had played Kevin Spacey's part in Seven (1995), you would've really liked the killer. (Laughs) You would've felt connected with the guy. [2016]

[on A Hologram for the King (2016)] I felt somehow - and strangely it's developed even more - that right now we really need tales that remind us that no matter how much the political and religious systems try to separate us, we are actually pretty connected. One of the great upsides to the digital age and so-called globalisation is that there is more connection done apart from the government-directed media. The way that people communicate has gone through the Internet into completely new ways of encountering, so we know more about each other than we ever did before, which is a big opportunity and chance for us to reach out and connect outside of the constructed systems of religion and politics, which I think is super acute as a subject. [2016]

[on A Hologram for the King (2016)] That's the big subject of the whole film, and for me, of the project, is that we're saying in our diversities and unevenness as countries, we are much more similar than they want to make us think. They want to make us think we're really different, and they want to keep those borders alive. Religious leaders want it to be as separate as possible: They don't want Muslim and Christian religion to actually mingle. But then it's funny how easy it is for people to actually connect because that's postmodernity, you know? We're so much closer than we used to be. [2016]

[on A Hologram for the King (2016)] Dave [Dave Eggers] had investigated the country quite intensely when he wrote the novel, and I kind of mimicked or recreated the trip that he made through the country. So, I went to the same hotel room, I met the same guide, was a really great guy; he was the role model for Yousef. He was really this funny guy and actually some of the experiences that I met came into the film, even though they are not in the book; the way he handles the subject of executions - that it's just part of his daily life. It's really weird, because it doesn't feel like it's really reflected, but at the same time, you can always say 'Well, we're not that much better about it.' {Laughs} And then his not liking Alan to pick up with girls here, and at the same time of course he's completely modern. It's actually contradictory, so he's obviously a transitionary character of the society. When I did this trip, I met all these kinds of people; and that people like Zahra, and then people like Yousef, and I met people who were really traditionalist and really conservative. So, you have a real big variety. And if you're honest, if you take a very representative trip, let's say, through the US, you will have the exact same experiences. [2016]

[on Babylon Berlin (2017)] I've considered myself a filmmaker ever since I started, whatever format I am working in. How my work is shown is secondary for me. What we've done here is make a 12-hour movie. Everything about the way it was made was like a movie - it was just that the process was longer. (...) I'd say that my previous films were watched 90% of the time on the small screen. This is my reality, it's always been my reality and that's fine with me. [April 2017]