Carmen in Xhosa wins Golden Bear

At a gala awards ceremony late on Saturday night, first-time director Mark Dornford-May said the prize belonged to the people of Khayelitsha before calling his lead actress, singer Pauline Malefane, to the stage.

The victory of the film —— only the second Golden Bear contender ever from South Africa —— was one of several upsets at the Berlinale, which ranks along with Cannes and Venice among Europe’s top film festivals.

Critics had widely expected the top prize to go to one of several edgy political dramas on subjects ranging from Palestinian suicide bombers to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The Silver Bear for best actress went to Germany’s Julia Jentsch for her role in Sophie Scholl —— The Final Days, a true story about a young student’s resistance against hitler’s gestapo.

‘‘A star is born,’’ festival director Dieter Kosslick said of Jentsch. Marc Rothemund also won a Silver Bear for best director for the film and thanked the late Scholl for ‘‘her freedom, initiative, civil courage and human dignity’’.

The Silver Bear for best actor went to American Lou Taylor Pucci, who beat out his co-star Keanu Reeves in Thumbsucker, a family drama about a 17-year-old unable to break his childhood habit. —PTI