Former martial artist Sarah leaves Austria to train three sisters from a wealthy family in the Middle East. What sounds initially like a dream job soon becomes unsettling: the young women are cut off from the outside world and under constant surveillance. Sport doesn’t seem to interest them. So why has Sarah been hired?
Kurdwin Ayub - 1990 IRQ
Kurdwin Ayub - 1990 IRQ
Kurdwin Ayub was born in 1990 in Iraq. She lives and works as a director and screenwriter in Vienna. From 2008 to 2013, she studied painting and experimental animation film at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. In parallel, she studied performative arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
Since 2010, she has participated in various film festivals and solo presentations in Austria and abroad. In 2011 and 2012, Ayub received the Short Film Award at the Viennale, and in 2013, the Vienna Independent Shorts Newcomer Film Award. Her first feature-length film, the documentary Paradies! Paradies!, for which she directed, wrote, and handled the cinematography, was screened at international film festivals and won the award for Best Cinematography at the Diagonale 2016, the New Waves Non-Fiction Award at the Seville European Film Festival 2016, and the Carte Blanche Nachwuchspreis at the Duisburger Filmwoche 2016.
For her feature film debut, Sonne, she was awarded the GWFF Best First Feature Award at the Berlinale 2022.