South African Film Wins Top Prize at Berlin Film Festival

A South African film that sets a famous opera in a South African township has won the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The Xhosa-language U-Carmen eKhayelitsha took home the Golden Bear award. The film portrays Georges Bizet's classic opera, Carmen, amid the struggles of life in a poor South African township.

A Chinese film, The Kong Que, or Peacock, won the second place Silver Bear award.

Marc Rothemund was given the Silver Bear for Best Director for Sophie Scholl - Die Letzten Tage, or Sophie Scholl - The Final Days.

Actress Julia Jentsch was honored with a Silver Bear for Best Actress for portraying Sophie Scholl, the real-life war-time resistance fighter who was killed by the Nazis.

The Silver Bear for Best Actor went to Lou Taylor Pucci for his role as an insecure teenager in the U.S. film Thumbsucker.

Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.