The film that changed my life: Gareth Edwards (original) (raw)

I don't remember exactly when I first saw A New Hope; it's always just sort of existed for me. It's the only film that I don't remember actually sitting down to watch for the very first time.

From the age of about six I watched it every day for at least a couple of years. I must have seen it more than 200 times. My mum remembers me quoting it word for word on long car journeys. I once did the entire script. They couldn't work out whether I was a massive film fan or autistic.

And the sad fact is that for my 30th birthday I went to Tunisia with my girlfriend and we went to the place where they filmed it. We stayed the night in the Troglodyte hotel, in a place called Matmata, which was Luke Skywalker's home. Then we drove across a desert to get to the same location as what they call "the Igloo". I couldn't quite get over the fact that this place was real.

Star Wars is definitely the reason that I wanted to become a film-maker. Actually, Star Wars made me want to go and blow up the Death Star and join the rebel alliance, but when I gradually learned that there was no such thing and that it was all one big lie called A Film, I thought: well, if I can't go and do those things, then the second best option is that I'll become a liar and I'll make films too and tell those lies to kids, and they can hate me like I hated George Lucas. So that's what I ended up doing.

For so many people my age it was the ultimate classic. It really hit a nerve. It's exactly the story you want to hear about when you're a little boy: that you can somehow get a weapon and learn off your elders and mentors; that you're meant for something greater; that one day you'll win the girl and kill the bad guy and save the universe.

Now I only watch it when I need to remind myself of what it is I want to do with my career – every now and again, just for a little bit. When you get older the world becomes smaller and more repetitive, but A New Hope still feels like magic to me, like the world's this massive place that's so epic you can never comprehend it all – there's so much to do and it's so exciting. So anything that helps to create that feeling of wonder that I had as a kid, I don't want to use up all at once because I never want that feeling of magic to end.

Director Gareth Edwards will be speaking at the next Jameson Cult Film Club event on the 3 March, at the Royal College of Surgeons, London. This 200-year-old building will be transformed into a live "infected zone" for the ultimate screening experience of his film, Monsters. For details see jamesoncultfilmclub.com