Grazia Deutschland receives birthday wishes from Sibel Kekilli

To help celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Germany's version of the Italian weekly fashion magazine Grazia this month, Turkish-German actress Sibel Kekilli submitted a personal photo of herself blowing out the candles on a birthday cake. The cake appeared to be a chocolate cake featuring five standard birthday candles plus a candle in the shape of the number five. The photo was published on Grazia's German-language website along with photos of other celebrities wishing happy birthday to the publication.

Kekilli's association with the German edition of Grazia goes back to 2010, when she granted the magazine an interview on what it was like living in Germany as a person of Turkish descent. She granted another interview in 2013 in which she discussed the international fame she achieved after starring as Shae on the HBO fantasy television series "Game of Thrones." Also in 2013, she attended Germany's Best Dressed Awards where Grazia named her "Best Dressed-Red Carpet."

Grazia was founded in 1938 and originally modeled after the American magazine, Harper's Bazaar. Its first international edition was published in Bulgaria in 2004 with the United Kingdom edition starting publication the following year. Now the magazine is published in more than 20 countries including China, France and Mexico, although not in the United States. An Australian edition was discontinued in 2013 due to low sales. This past summer, the UK version drew the ire of animal rights activists when it published an article suggesting that breeding animals would be a good way of earning extra money. Grazia subsequently apologized for the article.

Sibel Kekilli to appear at Design and Culture Days festival in Trier, Germany

The inaugural Design and Culture Days festival in Trier, Germany ("Design- und Kulturtagen Trier") will feature a special guest when Turkish-German actress Sibel Kekilli arrives for a public interview the evening of October 23. The interview will be conducted by German author, director and producer Hermann Vaske. The event is titled,"One Plus One Equals Three: Creative Talk with Sibel Kekilli."

The event will occur on the opening night of a three-day festival created by the city of Trier and the Department of Design at the University of Trier. The festival is designed to highlight many of the cultural and creative industries that exist in Trier and the surrounding region. Other events will include a number of exhibitions, a scientific symposium, presentations and panel discussions on the subject of design, and a fashion show with the awarding of the Trier Fashion Award.

As a director, Vaske has worked with actors such as John Cleese in the 2006 movie "The Art of Football from A to Z" and Dennis Hopper in the 2007 short film "Must I Write?" He has also interviewed such well-known figures as David Bowie, Stephen Hawking, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. Vaske has won more than 100 national and international creative awards in his career.

Kekilli's appearance at the festival will come less than two weeks after she was spotted in costume on the set of "Game of Thrones"in Peñiscola, Spain. Kekilli's character, Shae, was presumably killed at the end of Season Four, but her appearance in Peñiscola has fueled speculation that her character may return for Season Six.

Sibel Kekilli's visit to Peñíscola, Spain intrigues fans of 'Game of Thrones'

When Sibel Kekill showed up Monday on the set of  HBO's "Game of Thrones" in Peñíscola, Spain, it seemed as if she was there simply to visit old friends. After all, Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) and Conleth Hill (Varys) were filming in Peñíscola, and she had worked extensively with them before her character, Shae, was apparently strangled to death by Tyrion at the end of Season Four. She also had close relationships with show creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss, who are currently in the city supervising the shooting.

Things changed on Tuesday when Kekilli was spotted on the set once again -- this time, in costume.

Shooting for Season Six of "Game of Thrones" is currently underway in several locations, including Peñíscola, which serves as the location for the fictional city of Meereen. As of the end of Season Five, which aired this past spring, the characters for Dinklage and Hill were in Meereen. On Tuesday, based on photos and videos posted by various fans on Twitter and Instagram, Kekilli appeared to be wearing an outfit commonly worn by the former slaves in Meereen. This has set off a flurry of speculation among fans of the show, particularly on two fan websites, Winter Is Coming and Watchers on the Wall. The speculation typically falls into one of three categories:

1. Shae somehow survived getting strangled by Tyrion and eventually showed up in Meereen. Kekilli's character was always particularly confident in her survival skills, so it doesn't appear to be a stretch that Shae might play dead in an effort to get Tyrion to stop strangling her.
2. Shae has an identical twin who happens to be in Meereen. Very little is known about Shae's family, so the writers for the show have plenty of room to work with in this regard. Coincidentally, Kekilli actually has a twin sister, although she's a binovular twin.
3. Tyrion has a dream or hallucination involving Shae. The "Game of Thrones" TV series is adapted from George R.R. Martin's fantasy book series, "A Song of Ice and Fire," and in the fifth book, "A Dance with Dragons," Tyrion goes through a downward spiral of guilt over murdering Shae. Seeing visions of her would be consistent with this.

Kekilli is particularly fond of working with Dinklage, saying in 2013, "I really love him and his acting. His acting is overwhelming, and I love to watch him. When we act together, I really forget to act. Acting for me is like a ping-pong game. That’s the secret of acting. When you have a really good actor, I always want to be as good as he is or she is. Peter gives me the ball and I just want to return it to him."

Sibel Kekilli and the cast of 'Tatort' hit the red carpet at Filmfest Hamburg

Fans at this year's Filmfest Hamburg got a bit of a sneak preview on October 2 when an upcoming episode of the German television crime series "Tatort," titled "Borowski und die Rückkehr des stillen Gastes" ("Borowski and the Return of the Silent Guest"), was screened at the event. The screening was marked by a red carpet appearance of the Kiel cast of "Tatort," including Turkish-German actress Sibel Kekilli and her co-star Axel Milberg. The episode, which was filmed February 24-March 25, won't be aired on German television until January 1, 2016.

According to the official "Tatort" website, the episode is a sequel to "Borowski und die Rückkehr des stillen Gastes" ("Borowski and the Silent Guest"), which was aired in 2012. The original episode was about a notorious serial killer named Kai Korthals played by Lars Eidinger, who reprises his role in the new episode. In the sequel, Korthals is a suspect in the disappearance of the girlfriend of Milberg's character, Klaus Borowski. An additional Kiel episode, titled "Borowski und die große Stille" (Borowski and the Great Silence), was filmed this past summer. It has not been screened anywhere, and an air date has yet to be announced.

For her festival appearance, Kekilli appeared in a black dress sold by Weekday, accordingly to a post on Instagram by Prag Agency, a public relationships firm that specializes in fashion, beauty and art. Weekday bills itself as a "progressive retail store concept offering jeans and creative fashion at an affordable price." Weekday's retail stores are located in Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden.

Filmfest Hamburg is the third-largest film festival in Germany, after Berlin International Film Festival and Filmfest München. This year marks the 23rd edition of the festival. It continues through October 10.