South African youngster is heading for Hollywood

AWARD-winning local movie Izulu Lami (My Secret Sky) opens here on Friday after wowing international audiences.

The movie’s 12-year-old lead, Sobahle Mkhabase, bagged the best-actress award at Spain’s Tarifa film festival, where the film was voted best production in May.

The Grade 6 pupil from Mayfair, in Durban, who plays the character Thembi, said the film’s success was “overwhelming”.

“I never thought that I would get so many phone calls, interviews and attention ever in my life. Though I cried so much ... because I had to have my hair cut like it had been eaten like rats [but] it was all worth it. I am slowly starting to like the fame,” she laughed.

The film, made almost entirely in Zulu, was shot earlier this year on a budget of R4.5-million.

It features a number of young children with no professional acting skills who were discovered in KwaZulu-Natal’s townships and informal settlements.

Director Madoda Ncayiyana, known for his 2002 Cannes-award- winning short film The Sky in Her Eyes, said: “When I saw Sobahle at her school I was not sure about her acting, but that girl could sing. She caught my eye and the more I focused on her I could see gold in her, the same gold that got her the award.”

Izulu Lami received standing ovations at screenings in Japan and Zanzibar, and was a hit at France’s Cannes Film Festival.

Its domestic preview at the Durban International Film Festival last month was also well received.

The story centres around a brother and sister whose mother dies suddenly. A cruel aunt abandons the young children, forcing them to leave their village for the city, Durban.

They try to enter their mother’s woven grass mat into a craft competition, according to her dying wish, but are spotted by a street-wise gang after arriving in the city.

Under the guise of offering help, the gang introduces the pair to a taxi driver, who turns out to be a pimp aiming to sell the girl’s virginity as a cure for Aids.

“I hope someday I can get to act with Connie Ferguson, Halle Berry and Will Smith because I want to be famous, just like them,” said Mkhabase.