A Regular Woman (2019)

May 9, 2019 (DE) • Drama • 90m

Overview

Hatun Aynur Sürücü, a German woman of Kurdish origin, was shot dead by her brothers at a bus stop in 2005. The story of a woman who fought for her freedom and independence despite her family's objections, and whose life ended in a horrific murder.

Director

Sherry Hormann

Writer

Florian Oeller

Top Billed

Almila Bağrıaçık

Keywords

based on true story honor killing

Where to watch

Rent

Amazon Video

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Top Billed Cast

Almila Bağrıaçık

Aynur

Rauand Taleb

Nuri

Meral Perin

Deniya

Merve Aksoy

Shirin

Aram Arami

Tarik

Mehmet Ateşçi

Sinan

Jacob Matschenz

Tim

Lara Aylin Winkler

Evin

Lina Wendel

Heike Beck

İdil Üner

Dilber

Özgür Karadeniz

Bekir

Samir Fuchs

Prediger

Christian Kuchenbuch

Heckner

Lea Willkowsky

Hannelore

Mürtüz Yolcu

Rohat

Armin Wahedi Yeganeh

Aram

Crew

Judith Kaufmann

Director of Photography

Mirko Hans

Second Assistant Camera

Axel Zschernitz

Steadicam Operator

Bettina Böhler

Editor

Sherry Hormann

Director

Uli Friedrichs

Production Design

Patrick Dresen

Line Producer

Matthias Biber

Steadicam Operator

Simone Bär

Casting Director

Feyco Feenders

Digital Imaging Technician

Amal El-Farfachi

Casting Assistant

Alexis Kostudis

First Assistant Camera

Rainer Gerlach

Sound Mixer

Jessica Specker

Costume Design

Thomas Neumann

Supervising Sound Editor

Jo Goll

Book

Fabian Römer

Original Music Composer

Isabelle Neu

Makeup Artist

Peter Effenberg

Production Manager

Kim Doyen

First Assistant Director

Florian Oeller

Screenplay

Matthias Deiß

Book

Dominik Raetz

Sound Re-Recording Mixer

Marco Krüger

Boom Operator

Karen Kramatschek

Assistant Editor

René Helfrich

Art Direction

Christina Birnbaum

Makeup Artist

Sandra Maischberger

Producer

Paula Fischer

Costume Design

Reviews

CinemaSerf

⭐ 7/10

August 20, 2026

Aynur (Almila Bagriacik) is a free-spirited lass of Kurdish/Turkish stock who was despatched from her home at the age of sixteen to marry her cousin. She had a child with the man but divorced him soon after before fleeing to a shelter for women in Berlin and determined not to fall back into the more traditional role of a woman in her family. Her parents are opposed to her more libertarian lifestyle but not so vehemently as her brothers Nuri (Rauand Taleb), Sinan (Mehmet Atesci) and Tarik (Aram Arami) who hatch a fairly gruesome plan to eliminate their wayward sibling and to bring up her five year old son Can - in the true faith. Now we start at the end of this semi-biopic about this woman, so we know just what happened and who did what so the film itself consists more of a retrospective from her point of view as she struggles for her independence, works to qualify as an electrician and even tries to date other men - all in the face of open and often violent hostility from her family and their community. Even her own mother shows little sympathy as her daughter tries to make her own way in life. As if the arc of this story isn't objectionable enough, the brothers' premeditation also runs to Nuri finding his own more suitable wife in the form of Evin (Lara Aylin Winkler) whose complicit purpose is altogether more sinister and who might not really be a Muslim at all. The considered and increasingly frustrated and frightened narration helps to guide us, but for the most part this is an almost documentary-style of production that allows us to observe that even in 21st century Germany the religious, parental and patriarchal cultures imported from their homeland still carry far more weight than the laws of their new land. Indeed, relentlessly intimidated by her younger brother she even reports matters to the police - but all to little avail! The biggest question you'll probably find yourself asking is why she didn't just get on a train somewhere with her lad and wave them all goodbye. Why? Well I suspect that in the end she held out for some sort of reconciliation in the belief that the love she had for her family might be reciprocated after time, and there is something engagingly optimistic about the powerful effort from Bageiacik on that front just as there is an effective odious one from Taleb's too. In some ways this reminded me of "A Girl in the River" (2015) and is quite an harrowing indictment of not just the behaviour of a family more concerned with "shame" and "reputation", but of the failings of a developed and sophisticated judicial system that still struggles to deal with lies and alibis.

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A Regular Woman (2019)

Where to watch

Top Billed Cast

Crew

Reviews

CinemaSerf

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