As rich and captivating and multi-faceted as the character on which it is based.

| Original Score: 4.0/4.0 | Sep 26, 2020

Central to an expression of new female South African pride, is the lovely Pauline Malefane as Carmen, whose astonishing vocal power embodies both feminine grace and charm, along with bold, militant proletarian fire.

Full Review | Aug 11, 2007

Carmen finds a new home in a South African shantytown, lending the nation her powerful voice for the new freedoms of the post-apartheid era.

| Jun 15, 2007

[Director] Dornford-May's straightforward filmmaking neither glamorizes Khayelitsha and its residents nor plays up the contrast between the silky score and their hardscrabble lives.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 30, 2007

[Director] Dornford-May deftly balances the details of his setting with the universality of his themes, exploring every dusty corner of a village thrumming with tension between patriarchal leaders and strong-willed women.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 30, 2007

U-Carmen is brash, often strident, yet in the end it is not cathartic.

| Mar 30, 2007

No one can know whether Bizet would have approved of the movie musical U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha. But you suspect that he would have admired the filmmakers' gall.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 28, 2007

A vivacious film that is a treat for eyes and ears.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 28, 2007

This was basically the best idea ever.

| Mar 28, 2007

Set in locales ostensibly picked without concern for cinematic pretense, this crowd-pleaser conveys a sense of everyday life in South Africa while simultaneously serving up an endearing variation of a magical opera for the ages. Bravo!

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 28, 2007

Though not the best film version of Bizet's famous opera Carmen, Mark Dornford-May's Berlin Bear-winner from 2005 may be among the most loyal.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 17, 2007

[Dornford-May] and his cast take the familiar strains of one of the world's best-known works of opera and, by blending it with the sights and ambient sounds of South Africa, transform it into something that is both as old as pain and as new as hope.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 4, 2006

A fiery fusion of low-budget cinema and stately opera, street life and high art . . . offers a refreshing portrayal of female sexuality as voluptuous, bawdy, exuberant and unconquerable.

Full Review | Sep 22, 2006

Does it work? Absolutely brilliantly!

| Sep 2, 2006

Performances and singing are both on the money, and the film's organic, realistic feel seems to have been bolstered by the translation contribution that thesps Malefane and Andiswa Kedama made to the screenplay.

| Jul 28, 2006

The main attraction is the performance of Carmen by the magnificent Pauline Malefane, who also translated the libretto into Xhosa.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 28, 2006

U-Carmen hits the bull's eye, 'Toreador's or not.

| May 20, 2006

No prior knowledge of the original opera is required to enjoy U-Carmen, with the filmmakers successfully breaking free of the story's stage origins to create a dynamically cinematic work.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 16, 2006

| Original Score: 7/10 | May 13, 2006

Bizet's music is superb, the township setting ambitious and the performances boldly vibrant. But the action doesn't always escape its stage origins and occasionally feels static and self-conscious.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 6, 2006