04/08/2023 - The award-winning Kurdish-Austrian filmmaker is in the midst of shooting her second fiction feature, a surreal-sounding story of entrapment

With Sonne [+see also:
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interview: Kurdwin Ayub
film profile], translated from the German as “sun”, and Mond, which means “moon,” Kurdwin Ayub is inviting us to see her sophomore fiction feature as a companion piece, in some respects, to her first. Following Sonne’s launch in Berlinale 2022’s Encounters competition, and its garnering of the GWFF Best First Feature Award, anticipation will be high for Mond, which began shooting in April and whose filming concludes this month, on location in Vienna and Jordan. The film is scheduled for completion in spring of next year. 

The initial synopsis is an intriguing one, with an air of Yorgos Lanthimos’s breakthrough work Dogtooth [+see also:
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film profile]. Sarah, a former professional kickboxer from Vienna, accepts an offer to work as a personal trainer for a rich family in the Middle East. She finds herself in a foreign world, in a palace behind walls and cut off from the internet, where the sisters are under surveillance around the clock. They have no interest in learning to box. So why has Sarah been brought here? Sarah is incarnated by Austrian choreographer and performance artist Florentina Holzinger, whose work is described as containing “dizzying acrobatics;” Andria Tayeh and Celina Sarhan make up the other lead roles. 

Ulrich Seidl continues collaborating with Ayub as the film’s lead producer, through his company Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion. Further support comes from the Austrian Film Institute and Filmfonds Wien, with television investment from ORF. Klemens Hufnagl, who shot Joy [+see also:
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interview: Sudabeh Mortezai
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interview: Ronny Trocker
film profile], has come onboard as DOP, whilst Roland Stöttinger retains his role of editor from Sonne, where its rhythm and incorporation of various social video feeds were highlights of the film. Anthea Schranz provides the original score. 

Speaking to Forbes Austria whilst promoting Sonne, Ayub touted Mond as “very realistic,” whilst also featuring “horror and action elements.” Promising a potential linked series of films, she notes that “The sun is on the Kurdish flag, and I really wanted to create a film trilogy: sun, moon and stars. The films intend to deal with themes such as love-hate relationships, stereotypes and prejudice.”