The Faces: Our heroes and heroines of the month

A movie star who actually just wants to work as a mechanic, an actress in the fast lane and a billionaire with good intentions: Our heroes and heroines of the month.

Ethel Cain

Sound & Fury
America’s demons pray in the churches, dance in the nightclubs, cry alone in their beds. And they all, all live and suffer in the music of Ethel Cain. As if Lana Del Rey had hired the godfather of the Southern Gothic genre William Faulkner as a songwriter, Ethel Cain rehearses her own biography – growing up as a trans woman in a strictly religious family – in pitch-black folk-pop, stringing together masterpiece after masterpiece. The next one is coming soon: The second album “Perverts” will be released in January. A raw new year!

Abou Sangaré

Seul Asylum
He doesn’t want to be a movie star. He just wants to be allowed to work as a mechanic. But the former seems easier for Abou Sangaré than the latter. At the Cannes Film Festival, he won a prize for best actor for the film “L’Histoire de Souleymane”. The story of Souleymane is also that of Abou: like the main character, the 23-year-old is currently struggling through France’s working world and bureaucracy as an illegal immigrant. And despite the prestigious award, the Guinean continues to fight for his happy ending.

Aitana Bonmati

Golden Girl
If you visit Aitana Bonmati at home, you better wear sunglasses. Because the awards on her shelf now shine brighter than the summer weather over Barcelona. The Catalan has won everything there is to win in soccer. Often more than once. That’s why the world champion is now collecting prizes outside her discipline, such as the coveted Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year – the first female footballer ever to do so. Remember: the round goes into the square. And what happens on the green becomes gold for Aitana.

Marcelo Gutierrez

Paint and Glory
As Frank Sinatra once crooned between two glasses of whiskey on the rocks: If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. But who wants to go anywhere else? Marcelo Gutierrez chose the toughest place for his career as a make-up artist. And because his creations not only beautify the It-crowd, but turn them into total works of art, New York became the Colombian’s kingdom. Marcelo is now dedicating the photo book “Nothing Precious” to its people. An absolute treasure trove, and not just for fans of colossal cosmetics.

Naiomi Glasses

Indigenius
The proud tradition of the Navajo Nation can be read from her fabric patterns. With each piece, Naiomi Glasses continues to weave the story of her ancestors – and is now reaching a particularly exciting chapter. The seventh-generation textile artist has been named the first artist in residence by Ralph Lauren and is launching a capsule collection with the fashion brand. The designer – who is also a damn good skateboarder – is bringing the Diné aesthetic to a wide audience and adding warm splashes of color to the winter wardrobe.

Vinod Khosla

Billion Dollar Battle
Coke vs Pepsi, Tom vs Jerry, Edison vs Tesla – and Elon Musk vs Vinod Khosla. Our popcorn cup must be deep for some rivalries, because they never seem to end. The Indian-American investor became a billionaire with microchips and has made a name for himself as one of the fiercest critics of Donald Trump’s new Plus 1 at garden parties. As a self-declared techno-optimist, Vinod calls for an unconditional basic income, among other things, and focuses his entrepreneurial activities on environmental protection. If far too rich, then like this.

Mikey Madison

Pole Position
Spoiler alert for a five-year-old movie: at the end of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”, Mikey Madison is spectacularly torched by Leonardo DiCaprio. In the meantime, however, it is Hollywood that is on fire for the actress. With her title role in the film “Anora”, the newcomer goes into the upcoming film awards season as a favorite. As a sex worker, Mikey balances between drama and comedy on high heels as long as knitting needles and creates a nuanced portrait of a pretty woman in an ugly world.

Rhuigi Villaseñor

Forza Fashionista
Como 1907 soccer club is back in the top Italian league after 21 years. (At the time of going to press, the team had not won any of its last seven games, which we put down to premature hibernation). Rhuigi Villaseñor has been appointed Chief Brand Officer in order to dress up for promotion. The Filipino is the founder of the streetwear brand Rhude and former creative director at Bally. Now he wants to turn Como 1907 into an international lifestyle brand. And the goal-scoring will work, somehow.

Katja Lewina

Courage to die
Living with a deadline. It’s not just authors who have to. We all have to. But in the end, we don’t hand in a manuscript, we hand in a spoon. And a fork. And knives. All the cutlery, simply everything. After the sudden death of her seven-year-old son and a diagnosis of ARCV heart disease, writer Katja Lewina had to radically confront her own mortality. The result is the book “Was ist schon für immer”. It shows: The sooner we accept our own finiteness, the more fulfilling the journey towards it will be.

Lucas Pinheiro Braathen

Cristo Renntor
Thanks to him, Brazil is now a skiing nation. In 2023, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen ended his career as the best slalom racer in the world at its peak. Disillusioned with the Norwegian Ski Association, the eccentric superstar retired from the snow and recharged his batteries in the sands of Brazil. His mother’s home country offered him a stage as a DJ and model. But the call of the mountain was too loud. Now Lucas is starting out under a new flag and wants to bring glamor and rock’n’roll back to the ski circus – and, of course, outrun everyone again.

Parshad Esmaeili

Funny Business
Germany is known to go to the cellar for a laugh. Which is perfectly okay, as long as the Wi-Fi signal reaches there. Then you can also catch the comedy of Parshad Esmaeili, whose YouTube channel recently attracted over 100,000 subscribers. The German is out for punchlines that make you a little smarter afterwards. For example, as part of Jan Böhmermann’s “ZDF Magazin Royale” crew or Rezo’s anti-fake news educational project “Fake Train”. Whether on stage, as a podcast or online clip, Parshad’s motto is: funny, cunning – on.

You already know that we never run out of heroes.