For a long time, it felt as if I would never make Dust , and that possibility was breaking my heart. I insist on full creative control, and that is the main reason why it took so long. In Hollywood, the director, even when he is the writer, does not have full creative control. That may be fine for some people, but it does not work for me. I invest too much of my heart in the films I make to let bureaucrats change them at will.
Good things take a long time.
I was very lucky to work with a great and absolutely dedicated crew, even in harsh conditions. We shot in Macedonia in the hottest summer, with hundreds of extras in full uniforms in a heat of more than 40 degrees. We shot difficult nights in New York. The producers did the impossible by getting this ambitious film financed. This interview originally appeared in the Turkish daily Radikal .