# Emmy-Winners Gesbeen Mohammad & Robin Barnwell Launch Current Affairs Indie Telling “Stories Of The Year” From Iran, Afghanistan & Beyond

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/emmy-winners-gesbeen-mohammad-robin-barnwell-launch-current-affairs-indie-telling-stories-of-the-year-from-iran-afghanistan-beyond/
- Published: 2026-11-02T09:30:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-02T10:56:41+00:00
- Original publisher: Deadline
- Original article: https://deadline.com/2026/11/sisu-pictures-gesbeen-mohammad-robin-barnwell-docs-1237208046/
- Topics: Middle East, World

## Key points

- Gesbeen Mohammad and Robin Barnwell have launched Sisu Pictures.
- Its first films examine repression in Iran and Afghanistan.
- The founders cite shrinking budgets and risks to reporting.

## Summary

Award-winning producer-directors Gesbeen Mohammad and Robin Barnwell have launched Sisu Pictures, an independent company focused on major current-affairs stories. Its first two documentaries, about Iran and Afghanistan, examine authoritarian rule and were filmed largely in secret, highlighting the risks and limits facing journalists reporting from difficult-to-reach places.

The BBC’s *Iran: The People’s Story* investigates a crackdown on dissent following a January massacre and how the regime has used war to tighten control. Channel 4’s *The Taliban’s War on Women* follows Afghans in exile trying to rescue people under increasingly repressive Taliban rule. With current-affairs budgets shrinking, the founders say running their own company gives them more control over financing and filmmaking; they are also developing two confidential projects and exploring retrospective documentaries.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.