It was my first time in competition, so I was told I could either go on the first day or the last day. We decided to go for day one, thinking we’d smash them hard in the beginning and create an impression, even if everyone would forget the film two days later.

But after two days, people were still talking about the film. I was asked to stay another day and another day. I could hear people talking about the film on the street, at parties. I gave interview after interview. We started hoping we might win something. 

Then came the awards, and the festival asked me to stay on. At the ceremony, it started to look like we might win the Palme d’Or. I was so stressed! The stakes were so high, I got a terrible headache. When they said my name, I completely blanked out. I went onstage but I missed the whole moment — I was just trying to focus, to say something intelligent and not behave like a monkey.

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Looking back, it feels like it wasn’t an accident. There is something about that film. Even today, it is remembered as being very fresh, (and) it changed the perspective at the time a little bit. That’s the most difficult thing to do in cinema. You can make a good film but, especially the more experienced you become, the more you lose the innocence and freshness that you had at the beginning. I don’t know if you can ever learn to touch that again. It’s as much about a period in your life as anything else.

I’m happy the film has held up. You can read a lot of books about communism, but the feeling of living through it, the feeling that everybody’s watching you — that’s more interesting for young people to experience than to just read about.