Sonne
Directed by Kurdwin Ayub
Three teenage girls from Vienna twerk in hijab and sing a pop song. A YouTube video of it makes them famous overnight, especially among Kurdish Muslims. Yesmin, the only one of the friends who is Kurdish herself, begins to distance herself more and more from her culture. Nati and Bella, on the other hand, seem fascinated by a world that is strange to them. When the girls meet two young Kurdish patriots, the situation threatens to escalate. A film about young people caught between social media and self-discovery, a story of rebellious young women.
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Melina Benli, Law Wallner, Maya Wopienka
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German, Kurdish / 2022 / 88’
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FICTION - Drama
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Director Kurdwin Ayub Screenwriter Kurdwin Ayub Producer Ulrich Seidl Producer Veronika Franz Producer USF Georg Aschauer Cinematography Enzo Brandner Editor Roland Stöttinger Set Design Julia Libiseller Costum Design Carola Pizzini Sound David Almeida-Ribeiro Production Manager Steven Swirko Casting Ulrike Putzer Principal Cast Melina Benli, Law Wallner, Maya Wopienka Year 2022 Category Feature Country Austria Languages German, Kurdish Run time 88 mns Format 1:2,39 I 5:1 Company Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion GmbH With the support of Austrian Film Institute, Vienna Film Fund, Supported by the Comeback grant for film and TV productions In collaboration with ORF Film/Fernseh-Abkommen
Austrian distributor Stadtkino Filmverleih und Kinobetriebsgesellschaft m.b.H.
Copyright © 2022 Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion
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DCP | 1:2,39 | Colour | 5.1
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Encounters Competition Berlin 2022
GWFF Best First Feature Award -
“Kurdwin Ayub’s vibrant feature fizzes with defiance and truth (…) Its modern, female-centric story is also one which eschews traditional on-screen depictions of Muslim femininity and rebellion, and these elements may well see it travel further afield.” SCREEN
“Origins and national identity are far from simple matters to define for the teenagers in Sonne, one of the stand-out films from this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. (…) With its constant, irreverent humour and bantering dialogue, Sonne is never sanctimonious or overly worthy, but treats all the many perspectives it contains with open curiosity, and a generous compassion for human fickleness, youthful experimentation and mistakes.” SIGHT&SOUND
“Sonne is a promising start for Ayub, who creates an engaging coming-of-age drama with lived-in dialogue and a fine central performance, and leaves the audience with enough food for thought and R.E.M.’s biggest hit stuck in their heads. (…) Strong directorial choices mark Ayub’s debut.” INTERNATIONAL CINEPHILE SOCIETY
"Sonne is an updated take on the first generation immigrant struggle told by a woman filmmaker who knows what she’s talking about. (…) sharply drawn and very real, and the film’s approach to wearing a hijab is refreshingly neutral, ultimately a choice to be made by Yesmin alone that carries with it the old-fashioned woman’s prerogative: the right to change her mind.“ THE FILM VERDICT
“an energetic coming-of-age tale “ CINEUROPA
"It's a wild, fast-paced film that virtuously incorporates the new imagery of social media and poses questions about the disorientation of Western youth without moral overload.“ SPIEGEL
“The winner of the Best First Feature Award at the Berlinale touches upon important issues such as cultural appropriation and self-expression” THE UP COMING
”"Fascinating new“ RBB RADIO
"Kurdwin Ayub, a Viennese with roots in Kurdistan, has made perhaps the first Tiktok film to turn social media back into cinema - the portrait of a young woman named Yesmin who is in the process of "losing her religion," as she hints to with a performance of the hit song by the band R.E.M.: "Losing my Religion." What she gains - at least for a moment - is open hair, a sign of freedom not only against fundamentalist patriarchies around the world.“ FAZ
”SONNE has a great delicacy of writing and translates the complexity of his subject through a myriad of nuances. (…) To the ease of black and white opinions, SONNE prefers to explore exciting gray areas.” LE POLYESTER
”SONNE by Kurdwin Ayub is loud and colorful - and tells about the tough job of growing up in a wonderfully light way." NDR KULTUR
”Sonne is a more than solid film and we are pleased that it won the award for Best First Feature” ODG, ITALY
"Lightly told, yet with great seriousness, Kurdwin Ayub's film is a sensitive story about migrant self-empowerment and the exploration of one's own identity. At the same time, SONNE is also an affectionate approach to the intricacies of youthful friendships that points far beyond Kurdish-Austrian society." FLUTER
”In terms of content and aesthetics, this film shows what cultural and aesthetic contemporary history on the one hand and progression in cinema on the other hand can mean, strides forward, does not lament the past and equally recognizes it as an integral part of the present.“ BERLINER FILMFESTIVALS
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