Fomer Bond Girl's Autobiographical Film Coming September 2009

Mr Saint John SmithMr Saint John Smith UKPosts: 430MI6 Agent
edited March 2009 in General James Bond Chat
Thought people may be intereted in this story regarding former Bond girl Waris Dirie (credited as Waris Walsh) -

Waris Dirie was born in Somalia and at 5 years old was a victim of female circumsition (FGM Female genital mutilation). At 13 she fled Somalia after her father gave her in marriage to a 60 year old man. She fled to London where she worked as a maid and later worked as a cleaner at McDonalds.

It was while working at McDonalds she was discovered by photographer Terence Donovan who put her on the cover of the 1987 Pirelli calendar. From there her career took off and began modelling for brands such as Chanel, Levi's, L'Oreal and more. She modelled around the world and appeared in magazines such as Vogue, Elle and Glamour. She also appeared as one of the Harem Girls in The Living Daylights (credited as Waris Walsh). Although she is in a - blink and you'll miss it -role she did alot of publicity for the film appearing in various magazines and papers.

In 1997, at the height of her modeling career, Waris Dirie spoke for the first time about her mutilation with Laura Ziv from the fashion magazine Marie Claire and received a worldwide media coverage. The same year she became UN advocate for the abolition of FGM

In 1998 her first autgbiographical book Desert Flower was published and became an international bestseller. Other books by Waris Dirie are Desert Dawn and Desert Children, with which she started a European campaign against FGM. In 2002 she founded the Waris Dirie Foundation in Vienna, Austria. The Foundation collects money for charity projects in Somalia, Senegal and Sudan.

Waris has been awarded various prizes and awards for her work and is the UN Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. Last year she was awarded the French Legion of Honor by French President Nicolas Sarkozy for her work.

The film Desert Flower has been made which is based on her autobiographical book of the same name. It has a planned release of September 2009. It stars model Liya Kebede as Waris and features Sally Hawkins, Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson and Meera Syal. It's also rumored that Waris will be in the film playing her mother.

You can view the trailer here - http://www.myfilm.gr/article2497.html -

You'll need to scroll down and find Desert Flower, click on it and wait for it to load.

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