Actors were recruited from talent in the townships

A South African reworking of the opera Carmen has won the top award at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival.

U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha, which moved Georges Bizet's story to a township and translated the lyrics into Xhosa, was a surprise winner of the Golden Bear.

Based on a theatre show, it is the first feature film from British opera director Mark Dornford-May.

Lou Taylor Pucci won best actor for Thumbsucker while Julia Jentsch was named best actress for Sophie Scholl.

The awards will be handed out on Saturday at a ceremony that will bring the 10-day festival - one of the most prestigious after Cannes - to a close.

U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha, which sees its heroine work in a cigarette factory, was described as "a piece of arthouse genius" by The Times.

It beat favourites including Sometimes in April, about the Rwandan genocide , and Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, about a German girl who resisted Hitler's Gestapo.

Previous winners of the Golden Bear have included Bloody Sunday, Magnolia, The Thin Red Line, Central Station and The People vs Larry Flynt.

Mr Dornford-May said: "To say that we are ecstatic would be an understatement .

"The idea of setting and filming the world's most popular opera in Xhosa in a South African township seemed mad at the time - it still seems mad now - but it was an amazing experience."

The director has said opera is too exclusive - and that he hopes his film "will help break a bit of that exclusivity".

The panel of judges was headed by German director Roland Emmerich, who made Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow.

Marc Rothemund was named best director for Sophie Scholl while other prizes went to Chinese film Kong Que (Peacock) and Taiwanese porn-musical Tian Bian Yi Duo Yun (The Wayward Cloud).

But the standard of films in competition this year has been attacked by some critics, as has the level of interest generated by stars on the red carpet.

Cate Blanchett, Will Smith, Kevin Spacey, Keanu Reeves and George Michael were among the big-name celebrities at the festival.

(BBC)

genocide: systematic killing of a racial or cultural group（种族灭绝；灭绝种族的大屠杀）

understatement: a statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what might have been said（保守的陈述，掩饰）