There is nothing like a free vacation. A nice hotel, all-inclusive, or a fancy villa even. This is where Sarah (Florentina Holzinger) is supposed to start a new job. The former martial arts fighter has long lost her fighting spirit in the cage. She was stumbling through life in Vienna, taking up a bunch of half-hearted gigs. She has finally hit it big. She will spend one month in Jordan teaching her sports craft to three young sisters, from a wealthy family. A chance to get away from it all, particularly her self-loathing and overbearing sister..
Not all is as rosy as it first seemed. She immediately learns that the Middle East is a completely alien to her European values and sensibilities. Austrian-Kurdish director Kurdwin Ayub unravels these differences with eerie precision. This clash of cultures and the privileged, often entitled Western gaze was a central topic in her debut feature Sun (2022). In her previous movie, a Kurdish teen navigated the central conflict in Vienna. This time, she puts a European protagonist in the Arab world.
Choreographer and athlete Holzinger, who makes her acting debut, captures Sarah’s forlornness, and creates a fully rounded character. That’s thanks to a grounded, natural acting style. Her self-pity and lethargy suddenly vanish when she meets the girls. Nour (Andria Tayeh) and her sisters Shaima and Fatima are barely keen to learn martial arts. Instead of training, they ask Sarah to watch soap operas in the kitchen or accompany them on trips to the shopping mall. Even the rules of the house are bizarre: Sarah is asked to sign an NDA, there is no internet, photos are not permitted, and Sarah is also not allowed to go into the rooms on the first floor. At first, this does not bother her too much. Soon enough, strange events, locked rooms and bruises on naked skin make her question some of these regulations.
Local at the hotel bar spread terrifying gossip about the family, and some of the rumours turn out to be true. Ayub skilfully plays with the idea of a white saviour. She questions whether Sarah should rescue the girls from their golden cage. Should she just look away? Can such prevalent problems be resolved? Ayub does not offer any easy answers.
The contrast between the women is prominent, Sarah longs for a “cage” in order to give her mediocre existence a new lease of life. The three sisters want to break free from the societal norms that imprison them.. Mond reveals that sorority and the desire to challenge entrenched orthodoxies are universal.
Mond premiered is the Official Competition of the 77th Locarno Film Festival, when this piece was originally written. Also showing in the 4th edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival, and at WatchAUT in London on March 14th.
