We are especially proud to dedicate our tenth issue to the Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi. Little known in the West, the director of sombre and poetic masterpieces such as ‘A Time for Drunken Horses’ or ‘Turtles Can Fly’ combines documentary realism with visually sophisticated fictions about the life in the Kurdish border country between Iran and Iraq. He has won numerous film awards such as the Caméra d’Or in Cannes 2000 or the Peace Film Award at the Berlinale in 2005.

We met Bahman Ghobadi at his studio in Tehran to talk about the difficulties of Kurdish life, the role of the international media in the Middle East and his solitary stand as an independent film director in Iran.

This issue comes within a dizzying 20-page fold-out containing stunning film stills by Bahman Ghobadi.

Interview by Felix Koch / Photography by Bahman Ghobadi / Design by Gila Kaplan