At first, Zaha Hadid was called the ‘paper architect’, whose plans are unbuildable. Not only did she build her vivid paintings of gravity-defying shapes, but she got really famous for it. The movie titled Who Dares Wins about her life and artworks is recognized worldwide, and is screened in Toldi Cinema on 3 March, during the Budapest Architecture Film Days.
The film by Lindsey Hanlon and Roger Parsons visits her buildings across the globe, from Austria to Azerbaijan to find out how Zaha Hadid earned her nickname “The queen of the curve”. The movie premiered in 2013, three years before her tragic death.
Born in Baghdad in 1950 and based in London, Zaha Hadid was perhaps the most successful female architect ever. Her artworks include the London Olympic Aquatic Centre, the Peak in Hong Kong, Kurfürstendamm 70 in Berlin and the Cardiff Bay opera house in Wales. She became the first female recipient of the Pritzker architecture prize in 2004 and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) gold medal, that she managed to win twice.
She was one of a handful of global superstar designers who have changed the way people think about the world through buildings. Her death shocked not only the public and the architects close to her, but the fashion society as well, since she was acknowledged in both fields.
Speaking in February on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Hadid said: “I don’t really feel I’m part of the establishment. I’m not outside, I’m on the kind of edge, I’m dangling there. I quite like it … I’m not against the establishment per se. I just do what I do and that’s it.”
The movie, that is part of the Imagine series, starts on 3 March, Friday, at 7:15 PM at Toldi Cinema, and is screened along with Bishop Edward King Chapel. For more information, visit the Budapest Architecture Film Days website or facebook page.
