Since the first visit to Beijing earlier this September, Majid Majidi has been amazed by the city, and especially touched by the older people he met in the parks.

"They are singing and dancing like children and their energy is just like the city, vibrant though ancient," he said.

Before the director met with the students, he sat among the audiences watching his previous work "Children of Heaven" (1997), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won the Grand Prix des Americus, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Public Prize and FIPRESCI Prize-Special Distinction at the Montreal International Film Festival.

Majidi's films often portray displaced characters in difficult circumstances. His unique way of expressing a child's world will be a factor in his five-minute film and will focus on Beijing's children as a way to tell his story. "I think my work is about bridging the gap between the children's world and the adult world," he said.

As a world-acclaimed director, he told the students to get closer to the people in the real lives.

"Only by understanding their lives, can a filmmaker get much more inspiration," he said.

"We must tell stories about true lives and the real world."

Editor: Lency