U-Carmen Ekhayelitsha

Or: British director Mark Dornford-May’s film version of his stage production of Bizet’s opera version of Mérimée’s short story, set in twenty-first-century Khayelitsha, Cape Town, with the libretto in Xhosa and modern cultural references – radios, condoms – thrown in. Don José – Jongikhaya (Tshoni), as he’s called here – is not a soldier but a cop; Carmen (smouldering Malefane) works in a ciggie factory. The singing’s good, and the tunes familiar; as cinema, though, it’s competent at best. It won the Golden Bear at Berlin this year, which rather makes you wonder about the rest of the entrants.