Nastassja Kinski ‘proud’ of sister revealing alleged abuse

German actress Nastassja Kinski as she arrives for the screening of the film “Maniac” at the 65th Cannes film festival. AFP

BERLIN (AFP) – Actress Nastassja Kinski said Friday she was proud of her half-sister Pola for coming forward with allegations that she had been repeatedly raped by their father, the late German film icon Klaus Kinski.

Pola Kinski, 60, said in a magazine interview ahead of the release of a memoir that the mercurial actor, who died in 1991, had sexually abused her throughout her childhood.

Nastassja Kinski, who achieved the Hollywood fame with films such as “Cat People” and “Tess” that eluded her father, wrote in the German daily Bild that she had wept when she read Pola’s account.

“My sister is a heroine because she has freed her heart, her soul and thus her future from the burden of this secret,” the 51-year-old wrote.

“I stand by my sister, I stand behind her. I am deeply horrified. But I am proud of the strength she has shown in writing this book.”

Nastassja Kinski, who did not say whether she knew of any molestation or comment on her own relationship with her father, said she hoped the book would raise awareness of child abuse and encourage other victims to tell their stories.

“A book like Pola’s helps all children, youths and mothers who are afraid of fathers, who swallow their fear and hide everything away in their souls,” she said.

“Just because someone calls himself a father, as in this case, does not mean that he is a father. The horror has taken place nevertheless. Even fathers do horrible things.”

She added: “There is always help – all children should know that.”

In the 1970s, Nastassja Kinski made headlines for her affair with “Tess” director Roman Polanski. She was 15 at the time, while he was 42.

Nastassja Kinski, who was born in Berlin but lives in California, is the daughter of Kinski’s second wife Brigitte. Pola’s mother was his first wife, singer Gislinde Kuehbeck. They also have a 36-year-old half-brother, Nikolai.

Pola said Klaus Kinski, who was already notorious as a brilliant but tyrannical force in European cinema, began abusing her at the age of five and raped her for the first time when she was nine.

The assaults continued until she was 19, she alleged in an interview this week with Stern magazine.