{"id":672612,"date":"2026-11-02T11:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T11:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/672612\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T11:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T11:38:09","slug":"sisu-pictures-launched-by-gesbeen-mohammad-robin-barnwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/672612\/","title":{"rendered":"Sisu Pictures Launched By Gesbeen Mohammad & Robin Barnwell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Current affairs producer-directors Gesbeen Mohammad<\/a> and Robin Barnwell<\/a>, who between them have scooped Emmys, Peabodys and BAFTAs, are launching an indie dedicated to \u201ctaking on the stories of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSisu Pictures<\/a> kicks off with two docs airing on the same night in the shape of the BBC<\/a>\u2019s Iran: The People\u2019s Story and Channel 4\u2019s The Taliban\u2019s War on Women, both of which explore authoritarian regimes and had to virtually be filmed in secret.<\/p>\n

\n\tCo-founder Mohammad and Creative Director Barnwell are storied producer-directors who have won awards for the likes of Mariupol: The People\u2019s Story and Inside Russia: Putin\u2019s War at Home. <\/p>\n

\n\tWith \u201cfacts and verification at the heart of everything we do,\u201d they said Sisu will sometimes make docs from regimes that are hard for journalists to reach. They will \u201ctake on the stories of the year,\u201d often retrospectively. \u201cFive years after the Taliban took over, or 25 years after 9\/11, for example, we look at the big stories and find a way to tell them through a human, powerful lens,\u201d said Barnwell.<\/p>\n

\n\tTonight\u2019s Sisu-produced docs fall within this category and give a flavor of what the indie is trying to achieve. Iran: The People\u2019s Story investigates a crackdown on dissent since the January massacre and reveals how the regime has used war as a smokescreen to tighten its grip and deepen authoritarianism, while The Taliban\u2019s War on Women exposes the reality under the Taliban\u2019s increasingly repressive rule, following Afghans in exile on a mission to rescue victims desperate to escape.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re losing sight of the truth in many places,\u201d said Barnwell. \u201cPeople say the future will be defined by the battle between lies and truth, rather than simply by competing ideologies or liberal democracy. Both films we\u2019re launching with address these lies. We\u2019re providing a platform for people to speak the truth and helping deliver that truth to a wide audience.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tGoing forwards, the pair revealed they are working on another two projects that are secret \u201cto protect people on the ground,\u201d while they are exploring more retrospective documentaries<\/a> to pitch to the likes of Netflix and HBO. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe world of current affairs programming is in a tight spot with funding harder to come by than ever but rather than discourage the founders, it drove them to launch their own vehicle.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt a personal level, we felt that Sisu could be a solution for us as filmmakers,\u201d said Mohammad. \u201cThe market is shrinking so the question was, \u2018How do we keep telling important stories about the world when budgets are stagnating?\u2019 We wanted to keep the vision at the heart of the filmmaking, so we thought we\u2019d create our own company. That gives us more control over budgets and lets us make serious, boutique films that we can raise the capital for as filmmakers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith that in mind, Barnwell and Mohammad are working with co-producers like French-German broadcaster Arte on the Iran and Afghanistan films alongside a yet-to-be-revealed American partner. The pair noted it is now rare to get full funding from one public service broadcaster for a knotty current affairs doc about a faraway regime that takes years to film. <\/p>\n

\n\tTelling these stories remains front of mind, however, amid a \u201cdecrease\u201d in places where journalists are now allowed to report, Mohammad said. \u201cWe often look at a map and think about where we can go to film or do journalism,\u201d she said. \u201cBearing witness to people\u2019s experiences, rather than making statements, helps protect the journalism itself.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd in many senses this journalism remains in rude health. Investigative docs like Navalny and Mr. Nobody vs Putin have won Oscars of late, while Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor\u2019s NAZA has attracted global acclaim. A documentary may even win the Best Picture Oscar this year, with A24\u2019s You Can See Everything hotly tipped and raking in millions at the box office. \u201cThis all shows there\u2019s demand for serious investigations,\u201d said Barnwell.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cReport the facts fairly and complete the work\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Gesben<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGesbeen Mohammad (left) and Robin Barnwell<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSisu Pictures<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair stressed several times their dedication to compliance and impartiality, with \u201cthe amount of time we spend verifying facts increasing enormously,\u201d according to Barnwell. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe BBC has been hit hard by impartiality scandals of late including the botched Donald Trump edit that saw the resignations of its Director General and news chief, along with the Gaza documentary that was later revealed to have been part-narrated by the son of a Hamas minister.<\/p>\n

\n\tBarnwell and Mohammad wouldn\u2019t be drawn on these specific crises, both of which involved third-party production outfits, but they said it is getting harder to remain impartial in the age of social media.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think there\u2019s pressure on journalists to comment constantly on social media, as part of the battle for attention,\u201d added Mohammad. \u201cYounger generations, in particular, can struggle to draw the line between activism and advocacy on one hand, and impartiality on the other. Activist filmmaking has its place, but filmmakers need to be transparent with viewers about their perspective, their contributors and the characters they\u2019ve chosen. For us, the line is clear: report the facts fairly and complete the work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Current affairs producer-directors Gesbeen Mohammad and Robin Barnwell, who between them have scooped Emmys, Peabodys and BAFTAs,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1578,900,93,284920,61,60,270,284921,284922],"class_list":["post-672612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-bbc","tag-documentaries","tag-entertainment","tag-gesbeen-mohammad","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-robin-barnwell","tag-sisu-pictures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}