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

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.