Sibel Kekilli
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Sibel Kekilli (born June 16, 1980 in Heilbronn, Germany) is an award-winning Turkish-German actress.
[edit] Life and career
After finishing school, Sibel got employed as an administrative specialized employee in the city administration of Heilbronn. She also worked in a number of side-jobs such as a waitress and shop assistant, including a short stint as a model.
One day while at a Cologne shopping mall, she was noticed by a casting director who called her up for an audition for a role in a movie. Sibel won the leading role for Fatih Akın's planned movie against a field of 350 other hopefuls.
This movie Gegen die Wand (Head-On) written and directed by Fatih Akın was a major public success and received several prizes at film festivals:
- The "Golden Bear" prize for the best movie at the "54. Berlinale" (Berlin International Film Festival) on February 14.
- The golden prize in the category for the best actress at the "Deutscher Filmpreis" ("German Film Prize") on June 18.
- The "Quadriga" prize on October 3 in Berlin, Germany.
- The "Silver Mirror Award" for the best "movie from the south" at the Film Festival on October 16 in Oslo, Norway.
- The audience prize at the "9th Festival de Cine" on November 6-13 in Sevilla, Spain.
- The "Golden Bambi" for the best shooting star at the "56. Bambi-Verleihung" on November 19 in Hamburg, Germany.
- The golden "Gilde" prize for the best German movie 2003/2004 at the "Leipzig Film Fair".
- The award for the best "European movie 2004" at the "European Film Prize" on December 11 in Barcelona, Spain.
Sibel Kekilli will play a young Jewish woman on the way to the Auschwitz concentration camp in the upcoming German movie Der letzte Zug (The last train).
Shortly after the release of "Head on", the German tabloid newspaper Bild-Zeitung revealed, in sensationalist tone, that she had previously acted in pornographic films using the stage name "Dilara". This report led to a public scandal and the Bild-Zeitung was reprimanded by the Deutscher Presserat, the self-control institution of German publishers.
