Kurdwin Ayub

Director

Kurdwin Ayub, born in Dohuk, Iraq, in 1990, is a Kurdish-Austrian director and screenwriter. Her family fled to Austria in the 1990s, where she grew up in Vienna. She studied painting and experimental animation film at the University of Applied Arts and performative art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Her first feature-length film PARADISE! PARADISE! (2016) is a documentary in which she accompanies her father on a visit to his Kurdish homeland. The film won the award for best cinematography at the Diagonale 2016. Ayub made her feature film debut with “Sonne” (2022). The film tells the story of three girls who shoot a music video in burqas and receive unexpected attention as a result. “Sonne” premiered at the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival and won the GWFF Award for Best First Feature. Her latest film, “Mond” (2024), is about a former martial artist who travels to Jordan to train the daughters of a wealthy family. The film premiered at the Locarno Film Festival 2024, where it received the Special Jury Prize. In addition to her feature films, Ayub has made several short films, including “Boomerang” (2018), which won the Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the Max Ophüls Film Festival 2019.

Films on Sooner

Paradies! Paradies!

2016

78 mins

Documentary, Independent

Kurdwin Ayub, a member of the European Film Academy, tries to find out why his father falls into euphoria at the very mention of Kurdistan.