My Sweet Pepper Land (Tatlı Biber Diyarım) (translated)

My Sweet Pepper Land is a 2013 drama film co-written and directed by Hiner Saleem together with Véronique Wüthrich, produced as a co-production between Iraq, France and Germany. Shot mainly in Kurdish with dialogue in Arabic and Turkish, the film runs about 100 minutes. Golshifteh Farahani stars as Govend and Korkmaz Arslan as Baran, with Suat Usta and Mir Murad Bedirxan also in the cast.

Set in a remote border region between Iran, Turkey and Iraq in the days following the fall of Saddam Hussein, the story follows Baran, a former Peshmerga who takes up a police post in the tense area and finds himself unwelcome among the locals. His encounter with Govend, a teacher who is also shunned by her own community, gives rise to a shared struggle against oppression and a fragile bond. The film screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and earned directing and actress nominations at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.