Award-winning South African short film for theatrical release

This short film won the Djibril Diop Mambety Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival Award this year. The award is named after one of the continent's top directors and awarded yearly to the best African short film. The award is officially part of the Critics Week at Cannes and this marks the first time that a South African film has won a prize at this prestigious international festival.

The Sky in Her Eyes has also been awarded two other prizes (Special Mention) at international film festivals so far this year: Vues d'Afrique in Montreal, Canada and Italy's 13th annual Festival Cinema Africano Milano. The film has been officially selected at various international film festivals: Sundance, Tampere, Banff, Siena, Clermont Ferrand, Fespaco, the Durban International Film Festival and the African Union Festival in 2002, as well as being televised internationally and shown at major international events, e.g. the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the United Nations Special Session on Children and the Barcelona AIDS conference.

The film was directed by Ouida Smit and Madoda Ncayiyana, and was produced by Julie Frederikse of Vuleka Productions. Shot in the rural community of Ixobho in KwaZulu-Natal, this poignant short film tells the story of a young girl orphaned by AIDS who struggles to cope with her grief and confusion, as well as the prejudice she and her siblings suffer as a child-headed household. She ultimately finds consolation when a young boy reaches out to her through the simple act of flying a kite, helping her attach a picture she has drawn of her late mother and sending it up to the sky.

The film's small cast, none of whom had ever acted before, was drawn entirely from the rural Ixobho community in the foothills of the Drakensburg. Zama Hlangu, then seven years old, starred as the young girl who loses her mother. The part of the young boy who reaches out to the grieving orphan was played by Nkosiyethu Mkulise, and the mother was played by Beatrice Dlamini.

The Sky in her Eyes forms part of the STEPS FOR THE FUTURE series of awareness projects. For more information on the STEPS or other films in the series visit www.steps.co.za or contact Theresa Meyer on tel: +27 21 424 2970.