Award-Winning Documentary Makers Launch Sisu Pictures With Two Films on Authoritarian Rule
Gesbeen Mohammad and Robin Barnwell have launched Sisu Pictures, a new independent production company. Deadline reports that Mohammad is co-founder and Barnwell is Creative Director. "Independent" means the company is not owned by a broadcaster or a streaming service.
The company's first two productions are documentaries made for two of the UK's biggest broadcasters. One is BBC's Iran: The People's Story, which looks into a crackdown on dissent since the January massacre. The other is Channel 4's The Taliban's War on Women, which follows Afghans living in exile as they try to rescue people who want to escape. Both films aired on the same night.
Both films explore authoritarian regimes, meaning governments that hold power with little or no challenge from voters or courts. Both were filmed in secret, because the people on screen and those helping them could face serious danger if they were identified.
Mohammad and Barnwell have won Emmys, Peabody Awards and BAFTAs between them. Those are major prizes in American and British television. Their earlier films Mariupol: The People's Story and Inside Russia: Putin's War at Home also won awards.
Sisu says its mission is to take on "the stories of the year." It is working on two more projects that are secret for now, which the company says are meant to protect people on the ground. Sisu is also exploring retrospective documentaries, which look back at past events, to pitch to Netflix and HBO. To pitch means to offer an idea to a potential buyer.
The Iran and Afghanistan films were made with Arte as co-producer. A co-producer shares the making and often the funding of a film. An American partner also worked on both films, but that partner has not yet been named.
For a company only starting out, the first projects carry a lot of weight. Each film needs a crew, researchers and a broadcaster willing to show it. Sisu's next move will show whether those pieces can come together again.
