Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani discussed having to leave Iran, her love for music, and her career, including her most recent role in Julia Ducournau’s Cannes Film Festival competition movie Alpha, during a public conversation at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland on Thursday.

She talked about shaving her head when growing up in Iran, including when she was 16, which allowed her to play sports with boys. “I had a double identity,” she said. “I was popular with the girls because I would give them the phone numbers of my friends. … The same boys I would play with in the evenings [as a boy] would whistle at me in the morning and not recognize me.”

She concluded: “I was playing with death. I was obliged to sacrifice my femininity in order to ride a bicycle.”

Asked about being forced into exile, Farahani suggested that the authorities initially “had no big issue with me,” when she took on her role in Ridley Scott’s film Body of Lies opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, becoming the first Iranian star to act in a major Hollywood production. But she said Iran was at the time considered part of the “axis of evil” by the U.S., and her not wearing a hijab in the film ended up getting her into the crosshairs.

When she wanted to travel to the U.K., her passport was seized as the authorities expressed concern that she would be used as an Iranian symbol seized by the West. But the judge in charge argued authorities had to watch Body of Lies before sentencing Farahani. Eventually, she was handed back her passport and told she had to leave Iran as soon as possible, which she did, fitting “all my memories, all I could” into two bags. “I knew I couldn’t go back.”

The star shared that she even told the authorities: “You want to kill me? So kill me, and I’ll be free.” And she said her father received threats, including of violence against her.

Discussing the hijab, or scarf, that women are expected to wear in Iran, Farahani said: “People think the problem is the scarf, but it’s much more.” But she called it a powerful symbol, comparing the scarf to “the Berlin Wall.”

Asked about living in France, Farahani said: “I love France now. I can say that France is an adolescent country, like a 13-year-old adolescent teenager. The French people have no patience and want to have everything, they complain all the time, and don’t listen to anyone. … I love that.” Her remarks drew much laughter.

But she also shared that at first, she felt isolated and a bit like “in prison” after first moving to France, joking that she not only didn’t know various cultural references but also none of the cheeses.

When approached about roles in Iran-centric films after her departure, Farahani said she often rejected them. But when she read the script for Eran Riklis’ Reading Lolita in Tehran, she had to cry, leading her to make the movie, which felt extra-timely with the rise of the women’s rights movement in Iran. The movie tells the autobiographical story of a teacher who secretly gathers female students to read forbidden Western classics.

Asked about Iranian film, the actress offered: “Jafar Panahi can do anything. He is very strong,” and she also lauded the new wave of younger Iranian filmmakers. “Despite the regime, we kept our soul of art and culture. We’d rather die than leave our culture.”

Farahani also raised a question about streaming giants. “How is it that Netflix has never made anything about Iran? We have so many stories,” she offered. “There are so many tales, so many stories.”

Asked if she could step behind the camera as a director, the actress said she doesn’t feel the urge to do so but left the door open for a potential change of mind in the future.

The star on Thursday also shared that she originally wanted to become a musician because her family was in theater, and “I didn’t like the actors and actresses.” So, she started music. “I couldn’t stay seated for more than 20 minutes because I was hyperactive,” she said with a smile. “But music has always remained my shadow.” Among other things, she has played piano and guitar in her music.

Farahani wondered if actors choose roles or the other way around, mentioning how DiCaprio, for example, often plays roles of men who are rich or become rich. After a while, “I just wanted to play some comedy,” she shared. “Enough with the killing and the empowerment. I am on to love now.”

“I tend to answer I am a musician” when people ask her, Farahani also told the audience, concluding: “Before life, there was sound.” The actress shared that she needs contact lenses because she is shortsighted, meaning sound and rhythm are always key for her in acting. And she argued: “When you see good movies, there is always a rhythm. It’s our heartbeat.”

“I feel, I hear more than I see,” she added. “Sound and music are the basics of everything and the link between humans.”

Asked about Alpha, Farahani said, “It is a film about the trans-generational traumas.” While some call it and other recent roles she has played “genre” offerings, the star said she doesn’t like that designation as she typically sees them as dramas that are “a metaphor.” The actress also shared that work on Alpha exhausted her so much that she had forego another role afterwards.

The 78th edition of the venerable fest had opened on Wednesday evening, with the star receiving the Excellence Award Davide Campari to much applause from an excited crowd at the town’s Piazza Grande and calling cinema a “refuge” in a “dark world.” 

What’s next for her? “I’ve been so busy doing, doing, doing,” Farahani shared. Now, she is trying to not constantly focus on serving and working, but “being,” saying: “Even if I do nothing, I exist. I want to experiment with that. Human beings can be like flowers – and just exist.”

Farahani, born in Tehran in 1983, emerged as an acting talent at an early age, leading to her breakthrough role in Dariush Mehrjui’s The Pear Tree in 1998, which won her the best actress award at the Fajr International Film Festival. 

Her work in Iranian movies has included roles in Abbas Kiarostami’s Shirin (2008) and Asghar Farhadi’s About Elly (2009). She has also been on set with such international auteurs as Jim Jarmusch for Paterson (2016), as well as Ridley Scott for spy thriller Body of Lies (2008), along Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, action film Extraction (2020), with Chris Hemsworth, and its sequel (2023). Farahani also starred in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise film Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017). In France, she has worked with such directors  as Christophe Honoré, Alain Chabat, Arnaud Desplechin, Louis Garrel, and Mia Hansen-Løve. 

The actress previously visited Locarno to present the Rajasthan-set The Song of Scorpions (2017) on the Piazza Grande. 

Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro has lauded Farahani as “a key figure in contemporary cinema,” highlighting: “Charismatic and multifaceted, she has been able to immerse herself in very different contexts and roles, guided by her extraordinary talent and generosity as an artist.”

Farahani is one of several big-name Iranian film creatives attending Locarno78. Zar Amir Ebrahimi stars in opening film In the Land of Arto from director Tamara Stepanyan, while director Jafar Panahi is presenting his Cannes Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident, and Mohammad Rasoulof is also in town.

The 2025 Locarno festival runs through Aug. 16.