Hiam Abbass

My identity was a big issue when I was a teenager, and I had a lot of questions, like: 'Who am I?' 'Who do I belong to?' But when I was still quite young, I decided that belonging is a tough process in life, and I'd better say I belonged to myself and the world rather than belonging to one nationality or another.

Laughter is a way of really letting out all this pressure that you could face in your daily life in the suffering of your people, and comedy is almost like a medicine to your soul in a way.

I very much want to do things my way, and I want to control the result.

Simple things don't interest me.

I love to take risks and see how I cope with the situation.

My tendency in life is to like movies that deal with heavy stuff, but it's my nature.

I know myself - I cannot just play a cliche. It has to be a character; it has to be written with the complexity of the human being behind. Could be bad, could be good, could be someone we would hate, but still, I need a reason for that influence, and I need to understand why.

I grew up acutely aware of the exile and distance caused by war.