Arrival in Teheran – First Impressions – Friday Prayer at the stadium of the university of Teheran:

Extrakt:
At the same time, I found myself approached with hundreds of opportunities for interviews with all those on the journalists’ circuit of interviewees. I was offered interviews over here, interviews over there. I was even contacted for a potential interview with former president and candidate Rafsanjani himself. But I was a little uninterested in most of it. (…) You begin to lose your clarity, focusing entirely on the power establishment and losing the important story of any land: its people.

Metting with Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the Ayatollah – Dinnerparty (without alcohol) with the Creme de la Creme of the Iranian Film - Fotoshooting with former president Rafsanjani

Extrakt:
He (Hassan Khomeini ) had been told that I had gone to the Friday prayers, so he began the interview by asking my feelings about that. I told him that while the sea of belief in Islam had been impressive, that the use of seductive rage in the chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" are taken quite literally by mothers and fathers in the United States. I said that it seemed to me a highly destructive and inaccurate representation of the country I had come to learn about. Hassan listened with kind interest. His eyes didn't leave me as the translator made clear my statement. He uttered a very brief sentence in Farsi. He said, "Then we should change it."  

Sean Penn in a student's demonstration for women's right at the university of Teheran

Extrakt:
There was screaming and panic. And our bodies were four-walling each other -- you could barely move. It certainly seemed as if some could have been trampled, though as far as I know, that did not occur. But the following describes the irony of oppression: There was a woman among the panicking crowd. She reached her hand toward mine and I took it. Between us, we'd support each other out of this chaos. All of this couldn't have lasted more than 40 seconds, but at the end of it, the force of the police had only forced an illegal touch between a man and a woman. We parted instantly as the police stepped back from the line they had been assaulting.

Bombs at Imam Hussein Square in Teheran – Meeting with Elaheh Kuyai, Award of the Iranian Film Museum – Going Home

Extrakt:
The Film Museum of Iran had asked for the opportunity to honor me. I accepted for two reasons: First, I have deep respect for the creative talent in the motion picture business in Iran, and many of them were being pulled away from other engagements or had offered to join in this event. Additionally, it was a way to appease what had been a fairly aggressive and annoying media that I was very interested in boring into the submission of not following me to the airport. So I went. On the drive there, as we were passing under the trees of Mellat Park, there was an announcement on the radio that some arrests had been made in the previous day's bombings. But no details. Later, at the museum, I was given a tour and a trophy.