UCarmen eKhayelitsha

UCARMEN is a feature film based on Georges Bizets 19thcentury opera that was filmed on location in a modern South African township setting The energy compassion and heat of township life in all its elements create a constantly visually interesting and dynamic background for the unfolding of the story which owes part of its huge popularity to the thrilling combination of a violent gangster tale with a passionate almost supernatural love story As it unfolds it explores issues of fame and wealth the position of a strong and independently minded woman in a very masculine society and perhaps most importantly the incomprehensible attraction between abuser and victim Bizets opera based on Prosper Merimées novel premiered in Paris on March 3 1875 Set in a poor area of Seville the story of the magnetic woman who seduces loves and ultimately destroys her lover and herself