German Film Star’s Porn Past Hits The Web

German film star Sibel Kekilli, whose accolades include the Berlinale Golden Bear (equivalent to the U.S. Academy Award), is receiving attention that her fans today might find surprising: adult films she made long before she became a mainstream German film star.

“I made these films. But that is the past,” Kekilli said in a formal statement released by the German news media. “What counts is the Golden Bear for best film.”

The six adult films now being shown online feature the 23-year-old actress of Turkish origin in a number of hardcore scenes. The German tabloid Bild published a story about the old adult films with what another German publication called “a screaming headline” demanding to know why “the petite diva star[red] in such hard-core pornos,” showing a number of cleaned-up stills from a scene shot in Ibiza.

Kekilli starred as a Hamburg nurse in Head-On, a film winning the Golden Bear for Best Film. She’s said to have featured in a total of nine adult films before the Fall of 2002. Bild, which was described by one publication as having a reputation for dirt-digging, reportedly said Kekilli’s father was “in shock” over the revelation of his daughter’s adult past.