Far from emerging from Paris's elite, Mr Beaudoin was a French-Canadian chartered accountant who happened to marry the daughter of a successful maker of snow-mobiles, one Joseph-Armand Bombardier.

ECONOMIST: Subway to the sky

Metropolis was tapped for the New York performances of "The Firework-Maker's Daughter" thanks to its long connection to Mr. Bruce.

WSJ: Metropolis Ensemble Offers an Opera for the Elementary Set

The daughter of the prolific film maker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Samira Makhmalbaf won the 2000 Cannes Jury Prize for her following film Blackboards, about the trials of two travelling teachers in Kurdistan.

BBC: Iranian women tell their own story