Glow

Post-screening Q&A with director Gabriel Baur

“Someone who glows so brightly is not going to grow old,” Fellini once prophesied about Irene Staub aka Lady Shiva, one of the greatest of all Swiss divas. Thanks to her aura and self-mystification, many doors opened to her during Zürich’s exuberant years between 1968 and late ’80s. Discovered by a pioneer of Swiss fashion design, Irene managed to make the break from streetwalking to the art scene in-crowd. She worked successfully as a model, muse and performer, and pursued her dream of becoming a singer, starting out in a legendary Zürich underground band. But she lived life in the fast lane. Torn between the stress and strain of success, a yearning for freedom and self-destructive urges, she died far too young under circumstances that were never fully cleared up.

With archival footage, including material never shown to the public before and featuring a number of her prominent contemporaries, this film carries us back to a vibrant age of boundless possibilities, in which the sky seemed the only limit for people like Lady Shiva, an age that to this day still kindles a yearning in us. «Glow» by Gabriel Baur tells the story of a rebel‘s odyssey in search of identity – and a stirring friendship and love.