Actress Qubeka bags an international award

By The Zimbabwe Independent | Apr. 20, 2017 | 2 Min read

JOHANNESBURG — Local actress Khabonina Qubeka was awarded the Indie Spirit Best Actress Award at the Boston International Film Festival, for her portrayal of Dora‚ a Hillbrow prostitute, in the movie Dora’s Peace.

Sowetan Live

The Boston International Film Festival was held on April 13 until the 17th. The festival recognises American and international film makers. The aim of the festival is to support and promote all of these film makers works.

The director of the film, Kosta Kalarytis, won the Indie Spirit Special Recognition Award.

Sowetan Live caught up with the actress who told us what an honour the win was, as she highly respected the Boston Film Festival. She went on to say that the fact that the movie had been invited to the festival meant a great deal to her.

“What I respect about these awards is that when you take your film abroad to a place like the Boston International Film Festival, they don’t know anything about the cast members. As the lead actress they don’t know what else I’m in, what else I’m doing. All they know is what they see. They saw Dora’s Peace and they saw the performance. I also think they looked at the technicality of the performance. I think that’s what they appreciated and that means a lot to me.” Qubeka has also been pleasantly surprised by the film’s reception at home and abroad.

She finished off by saying that Dora’s Peace is an art piece that made South Africa “feel something’ and she is most proud of that.

“A lot of the people were crying after seeing the movie. They would send me messages saying your production team must give us a box of tissues because of the way they made us feel. I love that the movie made people feel something.”