South African films lure foreigners, but not home folks.(Preview)

Byline: CLARE NULLIS Associated Press

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - South Africa's film industry has taken the world stage with award-winning movies.

"Yesterday," the poignant tale of an HIV-infected woman, became the first South African film to be nominated for a foreign-language Oscar this year. "U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha," an exuberant adaptation of Bizet's opera set in the gritty Cape Town township of Khayelitsha and sung in Xhosa, was a surprise winner of the Berlin film festival's Golden Bear.

And "Drum," evoking the struggle against racist rule in 1950s Johannesburg, carried off the top prize at Africa's premier film festival in Burkina Faso. …