Iraqi actress Kurdwin Ayub wins big at Berlin Film Festival

“Sonne” had its world premiere on Feb. 12 at the festival. (AFP)
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Updated 17 February 2022
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Iraqi actress Kurdwin Ayub wins big at Berlin Film Festival

DUBAI: Iraqi actress Kurdwin Ayub, a former refugee, won the Best First Feature award at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival on Wednesday for her drama “Sonne.”

Ayub’s full-length feature, which she wrote and directed, centers around a Kurdish, Vienna-born teen, Yesmin, who makes a dance video with her non-Muslim friends.

The clip of the three girls goes viral overnight. Yesmin is then faced with cultural and religious challenges. 

“Sonne” had its world premiere on Feb. 12 at the festival.

Ayub was born in Iraq in 1990. She left her country with her family during the First Gulf War. The filmmaker, who is now an Austrian citizen, grew up on the outskirts of Vienna in a refugee camp.

Her shorts have been shown and awarded at numerous international film festivals. In 2013, she was awarded the Vienna Independent Short Newcomer Prize, while in 2011 and 2012, she received the Viennale Mehrwert Short Film Prize.

In 2012, she presented a series of her short films at the Viennale. Her feature documentary “Paradise! Paradise!,” which she directed and filmed, won multiple awards including Best Camera at the Diagonale — Festival of Austrian Film — and the New Waves Non Fiction Award at the Sevilla Festival de Cine Europeo.

This year’s Berlinale was held in-person for the first time in two years but was a shorter competition than usual, with strict regulations for audiences just as COVID-19 infections were peaking in Germany.

The festival awarded its Golden Bear top prize to Spanish director Carla Simon’s semi-autobiographical drama “Alcarras,” about a family of peach farmers fighting for their future.

There were 18 films from 15 countries vying for the Golden Bear, with the jury led by Indian-born American director M. Night Shyamalan.

The Berlinale is now the third major European film festival in a row to award its top prize to a woman director, following Cannes and Venice last year.

German-Turkish comedian Meltem Kaptan, 41, won the festival’s second ever gender-neutral acting prize for her performance in “Rabiye Kurnaz vs George W. Bush.”


Mona Tougaard wears bridal look at Dior’s Paris show

Updated 27 January 2026
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Mona Tougaard wears bridal look at Dior’s Paris show

  • Rihanna and Brigitte Macron among attendees at show
  • Design part of new director Jonathan Anderson’s vision

DUBAI/ PARIS: Model Mona Tougaard reportedly turned heads in a bridal-inspired look on the Christian Dior runway during the recent Paris Haute Couture Week.

The runway star, who has Danish, Turkish, Somali and Ethiopian ancestry, wore a sculptural white gown with a one-shoulder silhouette and layered petal-like appliques cascading from the bodice to the full skirt.

The asymmetrical bodice featured draped detailing across the torso, while the skirt flared into a voluminous, floor-length shape.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Dior Official (@dior)

The look was finished with oversized floral statement earrings that echoed the dress’s petal motif.

The floral elements echoed the wider vision of Dior’s new creative director Jonathan Anderson, who drew inspiration from nature and his love of ceramics for his first Haute Couture collection since being appointed to the role.

The 41-year-old faces the rare challenge of overseeing all three fashion lines at the house — women’s and men’s ready-to-wear and Haute Couture — becoming the first designer to do so since Christian Dior himself.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Dior Official (@dior)

Just days after presenting his latest men’s collection during Paris Men’s Fashion Week, the Northern Irish designer returned with his first couture offering.

The collection featured floral motifs on fabrics or as accessories, while sculptural bulbous dresses were inspired by the work of Kenya-born ceramicist Magdelene Odundo.

“When you copy nature, you always learn something,” Anderson declared in his show notes, which compared Haute Couture to a living ecosystem that is “evolving, adapting, enduring.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Dior Official (@dior)

Other noteworthy pieces included dresses with spherical birdcage-inspired silhouettes, while other models wore vest tops with their dresses gathered around their waists.

The front row at the Rodin Museum reflected the scale of anticipation surrounding Anderson’s couture debut. France’s first lady Brigitte Macron arrived early, while Lauren Sanchez Bezos swept in shortly after.

Actor Parker Posey twirled briefly in a trench-style dress, playing to the room before settling in.

Then the space fell into a collective pause as celebrities and editors alike waited for Rihanna. When the pop star finally took her seat, the lights dropped and the show began.

Before the show, Anderson admitted in an interview with the Business of Fashion website that he previously thought couture was “irrelevant,” adding that he never really “understood the glamour behind it.”

“Now, I feel like I’m doing a Ph.D. in couture,” he explained.