News in Brief
Iranian ‘Squad of Girls’ honored at Indian festival
Iranian film ‘Squad of Girls’, produced by the Farabi Cinema Foundation, was awarded at the 6th Innovative International Film Festival held in Bengaluru from October 12 to 15.
According to reports from ILNA, this international festival, marking its sixth successful year, showcased the film, directed by Monir Qeidi, as well as ‘No Prior Appointment’ directed by Behrouz Shoeibi.
Last year, the festival celebrated Iranian cinema by naming ‘Romanticism of Emad and Touba,’ directed by Mehdi Sabbaghzadeh, as the Best Cultural Impact Movie Award.
The Innovative International Film Festival provides a unique platform where independent and popular commercial films share the spotlight, and audiences at regional, national, and international levels, aiming to garner recognition and audience appreciation.
Glasgow museum says its £3m Rodin sculpture is missing
A statue by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, part of his famous Les Bourgeois de Calais group, is currently “unlocated” in Glasgow’s art collections, museum officials said.
The plaster sculpture, bought by Glasgow Museums from the artist in 1901, was exhibited in Kelvingrove Park from 25 June to 30 September 1949, according to Glasgow Life, the organisation in charge of many of the Scottish city’s cultural venues. But since then, it seems to have been lost, the Guardian wrote.
According to the Comité Rodin, which maintains a catalogue of the artist’s works around the world, the two-metre sculpture represents Jean d’Aire, one of the figures in the Calais group.
Its director, Jérôme le Blay, told AFP that the disappearance was “regrettable, but must be put into the context of the times”, as plaster works did not arouse much interest in the 1940s. The value of the work today would be around €3.5m (£3m), he estimated.
The bronze statues of the six Bourgeois de Calais, celebrating the sacrifice of local dignitaries during a siege of the northern French town by English armies during the hundred years war, were commissioned by the municipality and unveiled in 1895. Numerous bronze and plaster versions of the statue exist around the world.