Film Series - “ U-Carmen”

Directed by Mark Dornford-May

Set in the sprawling shantytown of Kayelitsha and sung entirely in the Xhosa Language, U-Carmen is a rousing and imaginative contemporary adaptation of George Bizet’s 19th-century opera Carmen. The debut feature of British director Mark Dornford-May, it’s impressively sung and performed by the Dimpho De Kopane Theater Company, and stars Pauline Malefane as the titular cigarette factory worker, who seduces the Bible-reading policeman Sergeant Jongikhaya (Andile Tshoni) with fateful consequences. No prior knowledge of the original opera is required to enjoy U-Carmen, with the filmmakers successfully breaking free of the story’s stage origins to create a dynamically cinematic work.

U-Carmen won the Golden Berlin Bear at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival

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