Kekilli grew up in Heilbronn, the daughter of Turkish parents, who had come to Germany in 1977. She describes her parents as fairly liberal, allowing her to participate at school trips and to go without a headscarf. After leaving school at age 16, she worked for two years for the local city government, then moved to Essen, where she worked various jobs.
One day in 2002 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) was released in 2004 and was a major public success, receiving several prizes at film festivals.
Shortly after the release of “Head-On”, the German tabloid newspaper Bild-Zeitung revealed, in a sensationalist tone, that she had previously acted in pornographic films using the stage name “Dilara”. This report led to a public scandal. Kekilli’s parents… read more
Kekilli grew up in Heilbronn, the daughter of Turkish parents, who had come to Germany in 1977. She describes her parents as fairly liberal, allowing her to participate at school trips and to go without a headscarf. After leaving school at age 16, she worked for two years for the local city government, then moved to Essen, where she worked various jobs.
One day in 2002 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) was released in 2004 and was a major public success, receiving several prizes at film festivals.
Shortly after the release of “Head-On”, the German tabloid newspaper Bild-Zeitung revealed, in a sensationalist tone, that she had previously acted in pornographic films using the stage name “Dilara”. This report led to a public scandal. Kekilli’s parents broke off all contact.
For her role in Head on, Kekilli received the 2004 Bambi Prize for best “shooting star”; during the televised acceptance speech, she tearfully complained about the “dirty smear campaign” and “media rape” against her. The Bild-Zeitung was later reprimanded for the coverage by the Deutscher Presserat, the self-control institution of German publishers
She starred in the Turkish coup d’état movie Eve Dönüş (2006), playing the wife of a man, who was unjustly imprisoned and tortured. Although her performance was criticized, especially her distinctive accent (some suggested over-dubbing her voice), she still managed to receive the award of Best Actress at the 2006 Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.
Sibel Kekilli played a young Jewish woman on the way to the Auschwitz concentration camp in the 2006 German movie Der letzte Zug (The last train).
In 2009, she played Umay in Feo Aladag’s Die Fremde (When We Leave) a young Turkish woman, who leaves Istanbul to return to her family in Berlin. Kekilli was awarded the Best Actress Lola Prize of Germany in 2010 for her leading role in this film.
Sibel Kekilli lives in Hamburg and supports the organization Terre des Femmes in their work against violence in families with Islamic background. In December 2006, at an anti-domestic violence event of the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet in Berlin, she stated “I have experienced myself that physical and psychological violence is seen as normal in Muslim families. Unfortunately violence belongs to the culture in Islam.” This caused the Turkish consul general to leave the room. —wikipedia
