Success Quote by Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Makhmalbaf is drawing a hard line between autobiography and authorship, even as he steps into the frame. The point isn’t “look, it’s me”; it’s “watch what it means that it’s me.” By insisting he “had to do it” himself, he’s admitting something directors usually conceal: authority is not neutral. When a filmmaker occupies a role, the body becomes a credential, a guarantee that the power being depicted is also being claimed, tested, or contaminated.

The phrase “a fascist behind the table” is doing blunt, stagey work. A table is bureaucracy made visible: paperwork, gatekeeping, the polite furniture of coercion. “Fascist” here isn’t a period costume so much as a function - the person who gets to decide, to interrogate, to stamp yes or no. Makhmalbaf’s subtext is that fascism isn’t only boots and slogans; it’s the everyday choreography of control, often performed in calm tones while seated.

Context matters: Makhmalbaf’s career emerges from revolutionary Iran, from censorship, ideological policing, and later a long argument with power - including his own earlier commitments. That history makes the decision to embody the figure especially charged. He’s not outsourcing the ugliness to an actor and then congratulating himself for “critiquing” it at a safe distance. He’s staging a confession about complicity: the artist, too, can sit behind the table. The success he’s talking about isn’t realism; it’s moral impact.