In Afghanistan, this is the problem, because everybody holds a piece of that mirror, and they all look at it and claim that they hold the entire truth.

Time magazine selected Makhmalbaf's 2001 film Kandahar as one of top 100 films of all time. Makhmalbaf left Iran in 2005 shortly after the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and now lives in Paris following the events of the 2009 Iranian presidential election.