It could be that MY SWEET PEPPER LAND is only the dream of the film’s main character Baran. A former fighter for Kurdish independence and now a police officer in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, Baran is disgusted by the first official execution carried out by the new authorities. He’d rather daydream while listening to the songs of Hank Williams and Elvis Presley.
Just as Baran is dreaming of country western soundtracks, MY SWEET PEPPER LAND is a kind of western with all the familiar tropes and images of a frontier, lawless land. Baran takes a job as a sheriff in a remote town on the border to Turkey that is only accessible by horse. The area is overrun with smugglers and gangs. Kurdish rebels regularly cross the border to supply themselves with weapons and foodstuffs. But Baran is not alone – he meets the beautiful teacher Govend, a young woman who defied her family to open up a school in the village. The locals see the single, modern woman as suspect and the budding romance between Baran and Govend is yet another side to Baran’s conflict with the local gangsters.
MY SWEET PEPPER LAND is a comical satire on the bureaucratic red tape in a newly-created state, as well as on conservatism and male machismo with its idiotic notions of honour. Yet PEPPERLAND is a western genre with a bang. And it has to be said: The likes of the stunning Golshifteh Farahani as Govend on the screen has not been seen in a long time. No wonder that she will appear in two upcoming Hollywood productions, one of which is EXODUS, Ridley Scott’s adaptation of the Israelites exodus from Egypt.

Tom Dorow (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Carla McDougall