Ali Samadi Ahadi, director of the award-winning documentary ‘The Green Wave', talks below about the process of making the film, which tells the story of the 2009 populist rebellion in Iran that foretold the emergence of similar rebellions across the Middle East this year.It was June 12, 2009.After having worked very hard for two years all of us were very much looking forward to the premiere of our comedy ‘Salami Aleikum'.From all over Germany our colleagues gathered for the International Film Festival in Emden where the film would be shown to the public for the first time.On the very same day my wife and I went to Bonn to submit our voting slip for the presidential elections in Iran. I always felt both, as an Iranian and as a German. So did my wife. We met in the no-man's land of cultures and tried to bring together in our lives the positive aspects of both of the two worlds.On the very same evening of June 12 it suddenly became clear that one of those worlds was in flames. Despite Salami Aleikum being a great success in Emden, our team did not at all feel like celebrating. We felt kind of petrified. Paralysed. And this feeling of helplessness was to remain for weeks. Iran was in flames and we could not do anything.Day by day we were sitting in front of the television for hours, being on the phone with each other, one in Vienna, the others in Berlin and Cologne. Silent. We were not in the mood for talking, but then again did not want to be alone during these hours. We moved together if only on the phone.It really took me weeks to get out of this dizziness and to take the decision to do what I can do best: a film about the events in Iran in the summer of 2009.But very soon it became clear that we had to find a special narrative style for the film because for the events behind us there existed only fragmentary poor-quality pictures taken with cell phones or images from archives covering the situation only in part.A re-enactment was out of the question for me, especially since it was clear to me that as long as the regime in Iran was in power I could no longer visit Iran.Iran is a nation of bloggers. Thousands of young people write down their feelings, write down what is on their minds in their blogs. If it was no longer possible for me to shoot my film in Iran, to interview the people there, these blogs were exactly the right source to reach the inner voices of the people.For a long-time art director Ali Soozandeh and I searched for an adequate visual language, when we came across the so-called motion comic to tell about these blogs. I chose 15 blogs from 1,500 websites which we then translated into images.We attracted a range of actors and with them we re-enacted the scenes and took photos.Alireza Darvish, a wonderful artist, accepted the challenge of doing the drawings of the characters, and Sina Mostafawy and his team began with the animation of the scenes.Finally, from the archive material, the recently shot interviews, the pictures from cell phones and the animations, Barbara Toennieshen and Andreas Menn composed this collage.The whole production took ten months. Within these ten months the concept, the financing, the animations, the editing as well as the sound design, the music and the compositing came off.The film is a memorial for those who believed in freedom and lost their lives in support of Iran's Green Revolution. We have used animation, interviews, blogs, tweets and cell phone footage to bring the audience into the streets with the protesters.Green is the colour of hope. Green is the colour of Islam and green was the symbol of recognition among the supporters of Iranian presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi.To put the rebellion into context, it was important that we talk to leading experts, as well as Iranian human rights activists about the rebellion in Iran. Included in the film are analyses by:n Shirin Ebadi Noble Peace Prize winner and Iranian lawyer who fights for more human rights and for freedom in Iran. She is the founder of the Centre for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran.n Payam Akhavan Former war crimes prosecutor, now a professor of international law at McGill University in Montréal. Professor Akhavan is a prominent human rights advocate for Iranian political prisoners and cofounder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre, an organisation documenting human rights violations by Iranian leaders to prepare for legal actions.n Mohsen Kadivar The Shiite cleric and philosopher, university lecturer, author and political dissident is one of the leading cleric critics of the Iranian system of Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist, established by Khomeini. Kadivar studied theology and got his PhD in Islamic law and Islamic philosophy. For a long time Kadivar has been an advocate for more democracy and also religious reforms in Iran. At the end of the 90s, for example, he fell into disgrace after having voiced public criticism and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.n Mehdi Mohseni Blogger and journalist who has advocated for reforms in Iran. He also was election assistant to Mousavi prior to the presidential elections. In summer 2009 he went to Germany in the course of a scientific exchange and since then has been living in exile there, because it would be too dangerous for him to return.n Mitra Khalatbari Award-winning journalist who has experienced the consequences of the controversial presidential elections firsthand. To escape the pressure and the persecution of the regime, in autumn 2009 she fled from Iran to Cologne and has been living in exile since then.The time pressure was immense and could only be put up with, because everybody plunged into the project and worked day and night. And at the same time one thing was clear for the team of Iranian descent: because of their participation in this project they will never be able to visit Iran again.