WWW- SIBEL Kekilli had lots of preparation for her nudity and sex in the award-winning “Head-On” – she used to be a porn star.

Kekilli and the German-Turkish drama about obsessive love won a host of prizes in Europe, including the best-film and best-actress honors at the all-important Berlin Film Festival.

But that was before the German press revealed that Kekilli, now 24, had had appeared in “nine hard-core pornographic films” early in her career.

“Why did the petite diva star in such hard-core pornos?” a headline in Germany’s mass-selling tabloid Bild demanded.

The story was accompanied by photos of the dark-haired Kekilli in a porn scene, as well as images from “Head-On,” which opened in New York on Friday. And, the paper reported, Kekilli’s father wasn’t happy.

“The disgrace is too great for the family,” Bild quoted him as saying.

“I can never forgive her for it. I don’t want to ever see her again.”

But Kekilli received much support, too.

“Head-On” director Fatih Akin said he had known of his star’s past but hadn’t see the porno flicks.

“I wanted to direct with an unbiased mind,” he said. He slammed Bild’s reporting of the controversy as “bigoted and disgusting.” As for Kekilli, who was an unknown before winning fame at the Berlin fest, she had this to say:

“Only vulgar people take pleasure in the mistakes of others. Mom, Dad – you can be proud of me.” She added: “I had a loan to pay off, and I worked numerous jobs between 2000 and 2002 to do it. I worked as a cleaning lady, a waitress and in a grocery and a bakery.

“Finally, when these weren’t enough to pay back the loan, I agreed to appear in porn movies.

“That’s why I did these films only for 300 euros [about $300, at the time] each. I later understood that it was a mistake.

“Head-On” features Kekilli as a Turkish woman living in Germany who marries a hot-tempered drunk (Birol Unel) in order to escape her old-world Turkish family.