Gabriel Baur’s latest film GLOW is about Swiss Icon Irene Staub, aka Lady Shiva – fierce feminist, fashion diva, freedom rebel, punk singer, and actor who charmed everyone from Catherine Deneuve to Fellini, Bowie and Jagger. She was also an LGBTQ cult figure who starred in Ulrike Ottinger’s 1977 film Madame X, An Absolute Ruler.
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Thanks to her aura and talent, many doors opened for Irene during Zürich’s exuberant years between 1968 and the late 1980s. Discovered by a pioneer of Swiss fashion, she became a model and also pursued her dream of becoming a singer in a legendary Zürich underground band. But Lady Shiva lived life in the fast lane; torn between the stress of success, a yearning for freedom, and self-destructive urges, she died far too young under circumstances that have never been fully explained.
GLOW revolves around the moving friendship of renowned designer Ursula Rodel and her muse, Irene Staub. It tells of an irrepressible desire for freedom in all its beauty and destructive force, of a stirring friendship and love. Using never-before-seen archival footage and interviews with prominent contemporaries, Baur brings us back to a vibrant age of boundless possibilities, in which the sky seemed the only limit for people like Lady Shiva.
Glow streaming begins November 28, 2023, exclusively on Amazon and OVID.
