South African child star from township to red carpet

SAFRICA: - Eleven-year-old Sobahle Mkhabase lives in a township but is headed for the red carpet as the star of a new South African film scooping festival awards and drawing inevitable comparisons with "Slumdog Millionaire".

Director Madoda Ncayiyana's "My Secret Sky" tells the story of a brother and sister whose mother dies, prompting them to leave their village in rural KwaZulu-Natal for the bright lights of Durban.

Fighting to survive on the streets, the young girl played by Sobahle meets an adult she believes will be her benefactor, but turns out to be a pimp. She only narrowly escapes being raped.

Her performance won the best actress award at Spain's Tarifa festival, where the film also picked up the Audience award, voted for by viewers.

Sobahle, like the character she plays, has no contact with her father. She lives with her mother in a modest home in the Durban township of Chesterville.

She was chosen from among 3,000 children who auditioned in township schools around the city, where Ncayiyana did the casting with a megaphone on the school grounds.

"She just attracted my eyes," he told AFP. "She had a presence. I was thinking, 'I wish this girl is good'."

"And when I made the audition, she was good as well. She wants to give something, I was impressed. This girl is going to stun the world."

Sobahle's energy, her fine features and her beaming smile gave life to his vision of Thembi, the film's heroine, he said.

His choice proved wise: In addition to its success at Tarifa, "My Secret Sky" ("Izulu Lami" in Zulu)shot in only four weeks won the best feature prize at the Cannes Pan African Film Festival in April. Durban, Wednesday, AFP