My Sweet Pepper Land

Sydney Premiere | 2013

Director's Biography
Director's Biography
Hiner Saleem (also transliterated as Hiner Salim) is an Iraqi–Kurdish film director. His memoir, My Father’s Rifle, has been translated into several languages. Hiner Saleem was born in the town of Aqrah in Iraqi Kurdistan. He left Iraq at the age of 17, and soon made his way to Italy, where he completed school and attended university. Later on, he moved to France where he lives now.
In 1992, after the First Gulf War, he filmed undercover the living conditions of Iraqi Kurds. This footage was shown at the Venice Film Festival. In 1997, he made his first movie Vive la marie … et la liberation du Kurdistan. This was followed by the films Passeurs de rêves (Beyond Our Dreams; 2000) Vodka Lemon (2003), Kilomètre Zéro (2005), Dol (2007), and Les Toits de Paris (Beneath the Rooftops of Paris; 2007).

Synopsis

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, Baran, a Kurdish independence war hero, resolves to accept a position in a godforsaken village at the borders of Iran and Turkey, an illegal trafficking Mecca. There he meets Govend, a beautiful young woman who has come to work as the teacher in the newly-opened school despite her twelve brothers’ hostility to the idea.

Screening with The Boxes.

Festivals

  • Cannes Film Festival 2013

Production Team

Director
Hiner Saleem
Country
Kurdistan, France, Germany
Runtime 
95 min
Language
Kurdish with English Subtitles
Premiere Status 
Classification 
18+
Year
2013
Screenwriter 
Producer
Marc Bordure, Robert Guédiguian
Cinematographer 
Editor
Cast
Golshifteh Farahani, Korkmaz Arslan

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