A charming western from Kurdistan
Rarely has a film about detachment and freedom in Iraqi-Kurdish everyday life been conveyed through comedy. But this one is! Don’t miss out on the charming, dark comedy My Sweet Pepper Land at Arabian Film Days.
The Kurdish film scene often focuses on poverty and the sufferings that the Kurdish people have gone through. Hiner Saleem is one of the biggest Kurdish directors, and his films are no exception when it comes to the Kurdish thematic. However, he uses one element that is not typical for Kurdish films, and that is humour.
Comedy about a suppressed people
With his dark comedies, Saleem expresses how he experiences the Iraqi-Kurdish everyday life, and gives a voice to a part of the Middle East which is not often heard. In My Sweet Pepper Land, Saleem depicts how Kurds are still a suppressed people, also after the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime. It feels like there will always be someone holding them down.
The film was screened at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2013, where it was also nominated in the category Un Certain Regard. Furthermore, we screened the movie at last year’s Films from the South Festival, where it became a big highlight. This is definitely a comedy to look forward to.
New times in Iraq
My Sweet Pepper Land starts out with new times in Iraq: Saddam Hussein is gone and the Kurdish people are facing a new life. Baran is a former freedom fighter and now a military official. He is fed up with his current life, and decides to quit the army and move back home.
At home, he gets tired of his mother nagging about him getting married. He therefore accepts a job offer as a sheriff in Qamaicam, a small village located in the northern part of Iraqi Kurdistan. He meets the beautiful teacher Govend, who is also not interested in getting married, to the frustration of her twelve brothers.
Baran’s new role as the village sheriff is not well received by all the villagers. The gang leader Aziz Aga is not interested in getting a new authority in town, and makes sure to give Baran a lot of struggles. It’s not either helping Baran’s situation when he and Govend, who is also despised by the community, get closer to each other.
The comedy is both gloomy and filled with joy at the same time. Parts of the movie is situated out in the beautiful Iraqi Kurdish landscape, and together with the unique, magical soundtrack, it contributes as a balancing contrast to the dramatic story.
“I was born an adult”
In 2003, Saleem made the film Vodka Lemon, which resulted in him winning the San Marco-price at the Venice Film Festival. The film explores some of the same themes that we see in My Sweet Pepper Land: A widow and a widower meet, they live in an Armenian village that suffers from the Soviet economic fall, and they have to adjust to their new life.
This dark film shares another important similarity with My Sweet Pepper Land, and that is humour. In an interview with The New York Times, Saleem said: ”I was born an adult, because we Kurds didn't have a childhood”. This might be one of the explanations to his use of humour and play; the lack of a childhood makes him use filmmaking as a playground in his grownup life.
During Arabian Film Days, Peace After Marriage will be screened: Friday 4th of April 21:00 Kino Victoria Sal 2, Sunday 6th of April 19:15 Kino Victoria Sal 3
What the press has to say about the film:
Highlighting the backwardness of outmoded, misogynistic codes while folding the message into a well-suited horse-opera form, the pic is tonally uneven, especially in the second half, but affords significant pleasures with its deadpan comedy, handsome landscapes and the forever welcome presence of Golshifteh Farahani.
- Variety
Saleem's Un Certain Regard entry, My Sweet Pepper Land, is his most accomplished attempt thus far, describing a historical moment in a way that communicates his fierce love for this remote region without veiling its grotesqueness.
- The Hollywood Reporter