Winner of the Golden Bear - Berlin International Film Festival 2005
U-Carmen Ekhayelitsha is a feature film sung and spoken in Xhosa, one of South Africa’s eleven official languages. Based on Bizet’s opera Carmen, U-Carmen Ekhayelitsha was shot in April/May 2004 in the township of Khayelitsha, near Cape Town.
Director Mark Dornford-May's adaptation is an impressive and entertaining film that relocates this tale of the love affair between Carmen and Don José in Khayelitsha, a shantytown in South Africa against the backdrop of the hardship suffered by those who live in it. Framed within an atmospherical environment of gangsters and shebeens this interpretation is a celebration of South African dramatic art at its best.
U-Carmen Ekhayelitsha won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival and opens 21st April 2006. You can view the trailer here!
