Sonne

When three teenage girlfriends, wearing burkas and hijabs, make a home music video to R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion,” and someone shares the film online, their moment of uninhibited camaraderie becomes a viral sensation. Of the trio, only Kurdish immigrant Yesmin is Muslim, and the garments her friends wore belonged to her family; the video engenders an unexpected reaction from her kin and conservative community. As the young women seize on their sudden fame to become an entertainment act around Vienna, Yesmin must contend with her own ideology, religious beliefs, and sense of belonging as a first-generation immigrant, while her friends become enthralled with her culture. This poetic film captures the highs and lows of adolescence while questioning the concept of homeland.