SYNOPSIS

Based on the tragic “honor killing” of Hatun Aynur Sürücü in 2005, the film A Regular Woman portrays a glimpse of life for a free spirited young woman living with an ultra-conservative Turkish Muslim family in Berlin. After escaping a forced marriage in Turkey with her abusive cousin, Hatun provokes the ire of her family by embracing a westernized lifestyle. After enduring endless harassment, she finally leaves the family and attempts to survive alone with her child, with whom she had escaped Turkey while pregnant. The threats and harassment continue, with German authorities willing to do nothing unless a physical act of harm takes place. This soon materializes as the family decides to task Hatun’s youngest brother with a deed that would end the family’s “shame,” and thrust the horrific practice of honor killings into the national spotlight.

VIRTUAL CINEMA SCREENINGS

PHYSICAL SCREENINGS

TRAILER

REVIEWS

Variety
Alissa Simon

“Much more accomplished and watchable than Hormann’s previous film about a real-life crime, “3096 Days,” “A Regular Woman” owes much to its fine cast and impeccable technical package.”

Tribeca Film Festival
Karen Kemmerle

“a unique non-fiction narrative anchored by Bagriacik’s riveting performance”

The Hollywood Reporter
Keith Uhlich

“Effective, if oppressively somber.”

Mark Reviews Movies
Mark Dujsik

“[T]he film … belongs to Aynur. It’s her life that matters. It’s her voice that we hear. It’s the loss of these that we feel the most…”

Movie Nation
Roger Moore

“Damning.”

Slant Magazine

Mark Jenkins

“Where When We Leave built to simple outage, this one concludes with a rush of complex, conflicting emotions.”

EscribiendoCine
Nicolas Quinteros

“The intelligent decision to make the murdered woman the narrator, serves as a sounding board of the severity of the tragedy unleashed.” [Full Review in Spanish]

Ostroscines.com
Diego Batlle

“An impactful and piercing fictional reconstruction of the real femicide case.” [Full Review in Spanish]

Clarín
Pablo O. Scholz

“With a script that’s more promising than the realization itself… A Regular Woman exposes an extreme situation.” [Full Review in Spanish]

La Nación
Javier Porta Fouz

“The movie is in search of a clearer and more direct impact.” [Full Review in Spanish]

Narrative Muse
Debbie Holloway

“This movie gives Aynur her voice back, if just for an hour and a half. And in doing so, it gives a voice to any woman who might be hurting, abused, or silenced..”

Film-Forward.com
Kent Turner

“Is there room for another film about honor killings? Director Sherry Hormann answers with a yes in her brisk, beat-by-beat depiction of the 2005 murder in Berlin of Hatun “Aynur” Surucu, 23, by her youngest brother.”

Screen International
Wendy Ide

“This is a serious, sympathetic attempt to engage with the life of a woman who, while she rejected her family’s strict reading of Islam, loved them too much to entirely break contact.”

Hollywood Soapbox
John Soltes

“The story, both dramatic and tragic for sure, is given the necessary emotion, reality and poignancy to make the movie an effective piece of docudrama.”

FESTIVALS / AWARDS

• Tribeca Film Festival – World Premiere