Directing

Kurdwin Ayub

Born January 1, 1990 · Iraq (age 36)

Kurdwin Ayub was born in Iraq in 1990. Currently, she works as a director, screenwriter, and video and performance artist in Vienna, Austria. Studies in Painting and Animation with Christian Ludwig Attersee and Judith Eisler at the University for Applied Arts Vienna from 2008 to 2013. Since 2011, studies in Performing Arts with Carola Dertnig at the University of Fine Arts Vienna. Her shorts have…

Known For

Paradise! Paradise!

Paradise! Paradise! · 2016

Paradise! Paradise!

MovieDocumentary

Kurdwin Ayub captures the intimacy of a trip she made with her father. Family visits alternate with real estate tours searching for an ideal apartment: her father's will, as he's planning to retire, is to find a place so he can finally return to that stateless territory he proudly calls "homeland".

Moon

MovieDramaThriller

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?

Sun

Young women, Austrian style. Yesmin is Kurdish and wears a headscarf. She shoots a cheeky burqa video with Bella and Nati which makes the trio famous in the Muslim community. Controversy and alienation ensue. Immediate, exuberantly introverted cinema.

Armageddon

Armageddon · 2019

MovieAnimationScience Fiction

Anton and Franz live together since the beginnings of 20th century. They talk about their difficulties of being vampires, since their first bite in 1938. Their inconsistent arguments recall those of normal human beings. And history repeat itself. As if that were not enough, they also doesn`t really like each other much.

LOLOLOL

LOLOLOL · 2020

MovieDocumentary

With provocative and performative energy, Kurdwin Ayub made herself the protagonist of her own video works during the 2010s' new internet culture of selfies and self-representation. In 'LOLOLOL' she turns the camera - a smartphone - away from herself and towards Anthea, an artist in her early 20s, as she during a long evening and night makes her entrance into Vienna's art world.

Cat Power

Cat Power · 2012

Sitting on her bed, Kurdwin Ayub wears a babydoll and hugs a blanket in her arms. She speaks to the camera as if addressing her ex-boyfriend. How to react to his eyes staring at us?

pretty-pretty

pretty-pretty · 2019

In pretty-pretty, Kurdwin Ayub’s reflective self-staging meets Viennese Actionism, body horror coalesces with beauty, and the pain that Ayub has so often staged becomes physical for the first time. As she applies a fine needle making viewers’ nerves twitch, a bloody, radiant smile spreads across her face. (Diagonale 2020, die Unvollendete, Catalogue, mk)

Boomerang

Boomerang · 2018

Adnan is obsessed with going to his ex-wife's housewarming party. Unfortunately, he isn't invited.

Filmography

Sort

Paradise! Paradise!

Paradise! Paradise! · 2016

Paradise! Paradise!

MovieDocumentary

Kurdwin Ayub captures the intimacy of a trip she made with her father. Family visits alternate with real estate tours searching for an ideal apartment: her father's will, as he's planning to retire, is to find a place so he can finally return to that stateless territory he proudly calls "homeland".

Director

Moon

MovieDramaThriller

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?

Director

Sun

Young women, Austrian style. Yesmin is Kurdish and wears a headscarf. She shoots a cheeky burqa video with Bella and Nati which makes the trio famous in the Muslim community. Controversy and alienation ensue. Immediate, exuberantly introverted cinema.

Director

Armageddon

Armageddon · 2019

MovieAnimationScience Fiction

Anton and Franz live together since the beginnings of 20th century. They talk about their difficulties of being vampires, since their first bite in 1938. Their inconsistent arguments recall those of normal human beings. And history repeat itself. As if that were not enough, they also doesn`t really like each other much.

Director

LOLOLOL

LOLOLOL · 2020

MovieDocumentary

With provocative and performative energy, Kurdwin Ayub made herself the protagonist of her own video works during the 2010s' new internet culture of selfies and self-representation. In 'LOLOLOL' she turns the camera - a smartphone - away from herself and towards Anthea, an artist in her early 20s, as she during a long evening and night makes her entrance into Vienna's art world.

Director

Cat Power

Cat Power · 2012

Sitting on her bed, Kurdwin Ayub wears a babydoll and hugs a blanket in her arms. She speaks to the camera as if addressing her ex-boyfriend. How to react to his eyes staring at us?

Director

pretty-pretty

pretty-pretty · 2019

In pretty-pretty, Kurdwin Ayub’s reflective self-staging meets Viennese Actionism, body horror coalesces with beauty, and the pain that Ayub has so often staged becomes physical for the first time. As she applies a fine needle making viewers’ nerves twitch, a bloody, radiant smile spreads across her face. (Diagonale 2020, die Unvollendete, Catalogue, mk)

Director

Boomerang

Boomerang · 2018

Adnan is obsessed with going to his ex-wife's housewarming party. Unfortunately, he isn't invited.

Director