But I also think that the more you reason collectively about what the project should be at the beginning of the process, the more you can improvise later.

The necessity to conceptualise has to come very early on, and defining a vector of development for that film also at the beginning of the process will allow you much more freedom as you go along.

I come from a country and also a continent whose identity is in the making. We're a very young culture, and I think that things are not yet crystallised.

So the search for a father in Central Station is also a search for a country.

That's why I have always admired documentaries, because they open windows that can make you understand much better where you come from, much better than fiction, I think.

The other aspect is that you become much more aware of the structural problems that pertain to that continent. You feel the need to act to try and solve them.