U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha

U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha is a 2005 film directed by Mark Dornford-May. It is a version of Bizet's Carmen sung in Xhosa and set in modern-day Khayelitsha, a township near Cape Town in South Africa. It stars Pauline Malefane, a professional singer who grew up in Khayelitsha and who translated the script into Xhosa. It won critical acclaim when it premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Golden Bear award. It's not the fi... more

U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha is a 2005 film directed by Mark Dornford-May. It is a version of Bizet's Carmen sung in Xhosa and set in modern-day Khayelitsha, a township near Cape Town in South Africa. It stars Pauline Malefane, a professional singer who grew up in Khayelitsha and who translated the script into Xhosa. It won critical acclaim when it premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Golden Bear award. It's not the first black version of Carmen or even the first African Carmen, which were Carmen Jones (1954), set in 1950s USA and directed by Otto Preminger with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; and Karmen Geￃﾯ (2001) a French version set in modern day Dakar by Senegal director Joseph Gaￃﾯ Ramaka, respectively. less