Sonne

Refreshing Ulrich Seidl-produced coming-of-age movie.

Sonne won the GWFF Best First Feature Award at this year's Berlin International Film Festival and is truly a both captivating and measured film that dives into a limited period in the life of Kurdish-Austrian Yasmin. Together with two friends, she records a mobile video where the trio lip sync to R.E.M.'s iconic Losing My Religion, wearing her mother's (seldom used) burqas. When the film goes viral on the internet, the girls meet little resistance, and even end up as local celebrities and perform at several events in the Muslim community Yasmin's family belongs to in Vienna. Nevertheless, it gradually becomes clear that the girls' new celebrity status has greater consequences than they first realize.

Like the international success Skam (2015-17), director Ayub uses documentary elements and «Messenger aesthetics» to show young people's everyday lives in a subdued and realistic way. Melina Benli is a hit in the lead role as Yasmin and makes a performance that shows how the everyday life of a teenager changes from the extremely banal to really exciting and back again, in a flash of seconds.

The screenings are supported by The Austrian Embassy in Oslo.

Jon Sæter

Director

Iraqi-born Kurdwin Ayub (b. 1990) has previously made numerous award-winning short films. Among other things, she studied art at the University of Fine Arts in Vienna, where she works today as a director, screenwriter, and video installation artist. Sonne is her first feature film.

This film is part of