Iraq-born Austrian filmmaker Kurdwin Ayub has just begun work on Mond (the translation of the word Moon). She is re-teaming with Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion on a project that will film in Jordan and Austria. The given synopsis sounds Orwellian and underground but out there in the open. We’ll likely get to confirm the film’s female protagonist.
Sarah, a former professional kickboxer from Vienna, accepts an offer to work as a personal trainer for three daughters of a wealthy family in the Middle East. She lands in a strange world, in a palace behind walls and without internet, where the sisters are monitored 24/7. Little interest in boxing training. Why did they bring Sarah here though?
Winner of the Best First Feature Award at the Berlinale and a nominee for the European Discovery prize at the European Film Awards, in Nicholas Bell’s review of her narrative debut Soone he underlines that “…there’s no considerable resolution, other than an unexpectedly frivolous action fomenting the end of innocence for one young woman. Interesting, but not exactly covering new ground, Ayub’s power lies in her film’s intimate moments.”
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).
