Iranian director Majid Majidi talks about his filmmaking at a master class in Beijing, Xu Fan reports. 

Iranian director Majid Majidi is known for making films centered on children. His 1997 classic, Children of Heaven-about two young siblings who share a pair of tattered sneakers-was the first Iranian film nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign language category. His other acclaimed films include The Color of Paradise, a best feature winner at the Montreal World Film Festival in 1999, Baran (2001) and The Willow Tree (2005).

During his recent visit to Beijing, Majidi revealed how he manages to bring out the most natural on-screen emotions in his young actors and actresses-by "cheating" a little as well.

"I wrote another script for the children, but they didn't know in advance," Majidi, 59, said in Persian of Children of Heaven at a master class organized by the China Film Foundation's Wu Tianming Film Summit for Young Talents, which was held in Beijing from Nov 4 to 9.

He says he set up a "trap" for Amir Farrokh Hashemian, who stars as 8-year-old Ali in the same film, and Bahare Seddiqi, the actress who plays Ali's younger sister, Zahra.

In the film, which also won the best picture award at the Montreal World Film Festival in 1997, Ali is from a poverty-stricken family in Tehran. One day, he loses a pair of pink shoes-his sister's only footwear. Fearing that their father would blame him, the siblings decide to take turns wearing Ali's pair of sneakers to go to school. But a string of mishaps makes the situation worse.

It was the first film for the two child actors, Hashemian and Seddiqi, who were selected from a number of elementary school students in Tehran.

They had to show anger, joy and desperation, among other emotions.

"But the children would be nervous in front of a camera. It's natural. You cannot be too demanding," says Majidi.

So, the director pretended to scold an assistant for "carelessness" at work and told him that he was fired. As the assistant's regular job involved taking care of the two children, they felt sad and cried. Hashemian walked toward Majidi, asking the director to forgive the assistant. Majidi nodded as if he was reluctant but agreed.

"He (Hashemian) was so excited and promptly jumped. The child quickly ran to the assistant and stopped him from 'leaving'. At that moment, you could see that the child thought it was a great thing," recalls Majidi.

But the children didn't know that the cameras were rolling, recording their emotions, which were edited to become formal content in the film.

"Of course, you cannot do such things for all scenes. You still have to correctly teach them (child artists) to induce emotions," says Majidi.

He says he shoots what he really needs during rehearsals, as children are more relaxed and natural than when they perform officially.

Majidi, who's also a father of two children, says traveling with the young cast is his other way to get into their world.

Before shooting The Color of Paradise, which was listed by Time Magazine as one of the 10 best movies of 2000, the director toured with Mohsen Ramezani, who stars the protagonist-a boy who's blind-to northern Iran's water bodies and forests.

"He is more sensitive to hearing and touch than people (without sight disabilities). I wanted to know how he feels and experiences the world," recalls Majidi.

It turned out to be quite a journey. Young Ramezani listened to the breeze and birds in the woods and grabbed sand on a beach-experiences he described as listening to the "languages of nature" to the director.

"I felt like I was blind, too, but that Ramezani's vision was stronger. The travel was very inspirational and had opened my heart to the authentic beauty of nature," says Majidi.

Born in a middle-class family in Tehran, his fascination with acting and the stage started at 11 years old. His interest in cinema grew after the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

His latest film is Beyond the Clouds, a 2017 Hindi-language feature that marks his first production outside Iran. Set in Mumbai, the film is about adult siblings and has child characters, too.

"A Chinese distributor has purchased it. I hope Beyond the Clouds will be released in China next year," says Majidi.

Majidi was once invited as one of five foreign masters to shoot a five-minute promo for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He says he has since shaped an idea about depicting the conflict between a Chinese boy and his grandmother, who respectively represent yearning for a modern life and the persistence of tradition.

"I have been thinking about the script and polishing it for a decade. I'm talking to some Chinese filmmakers and hope I can shoot the story in China," says Majidi.

"Iran and China share a lot of similarities in culture. China has a huge film market. I expect more cooperation in cinema."

Contact the writer at xufan@chinadaily.com.cn