Premiere of an award winning film version of Carmen, uCarmen eKhayelitsha

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Golden Bear for 'U-Carmen'

21 February 2005

Xhosa film "U-Carmen eKhayelitsha", the acclaimed version of Bizet's opera "Carmen" set in the context of Cape Town's Khayelitsha township, has become the first South African film to win the Golden Bear for best film at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival.

"U-Carmen" was only the second South African film - and the first in 25 years - chosen compete for the award. Athol Fugard's "Marigolds" was awarded a Berlin Bear (normally called a Silver Bear) in 1980.

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Changing SA's townships through opera

By Nick Miles
BBC News, Cape Town

As the limousines arrive at the premiere of an award winning film version of Carmen, U Carmen E Khayelitsha, they have to slow down for a group of barefooted children pushing shopping trolleys filled with scrap metal across the road.

Welcome to a movie premiere in a South African township.

Outside the venue for the premiere - a converted sports hall in the impoverished former township of Khayelitsha - life is hard, rows of shacks with corrugated iron roofs stretch into the distance.

Inside are 600 handpicked guests, the great and the good of Cape Town's artistic community all in one place.

The carpets are red, the drinks are flowing and the dresses were in the Oscar acceptance speech mould. Made to make an impression.

So why stage the premiere in the middle of an area so blighted by poverty?

Well, the event was launching a very special film on the South African public.

And there are plenty of reasons why U Carmen E Khayelitsha is special.

Raw

It is the first operatic film to be made in South Africa's Xhosa language, it is the first African film to win the coveted Golden Bear for best picture at the Berlin Film festival and it is the first mainstream film to use actors almost exclusively from the townships.

They were brought together almost five years ago after extensive auditions held in the townships across South Africa.

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Carmen in Khayelitsha

By Kirk Honeycutt

BERLIN -- "Carmen in Khayelitsha" bravely transfers Georges Bizet's "Carmen," undoubtedly the opera with the greatest number of "hit" songs, from the slums of 19th century Seville to the present-day township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town, South Africa. The entire libretto is translated into the Xhosa language, which is brilliantly sung by an extremely talented lyric theater company in Cape Town called Dimpho Di Kopane. Whether this all works will be a matter of opinion -- mine is that it does not -- but the experiment is fascinating.

The film is a sure bet for festivals the world over. The film might even see limited theatrical exposure outside of South Africa, though clearly the audience is a small one.

Shooting in the real dusty township and a set of 60 shacks, Mark Dornford-May, a British-born stage director and co-founder of the theater company, creates a plausible new environment for this dark tale of love, betrayal, revenge and sexual obsession. The opening sequences are particularly strong, but it takes awhile to adjust to a full-on opera taking place in such a realistically depicted shantytown.

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