Linda Mvusi
Linda Mvusi (c. 1955 in Bloemfontein ) is a South African architect and former actress. Notoriety she gained through her first and only film role in Chris Menges ' award-winning feature film Two Worlds ( 1988).
Biography
Linda Mvusi was born in the Free State Province and grew in the former Northern Rhodesia ( now Zambia ), Ghana and Kenya. She was trained as an architect and went in Harare, capital of Zimbabwe after this profession. In a time of transition, she was approached by the local office of the African National Congress ( ANC), which for an actress for Chris Menges ' five million U.S. dollar movie production sought Two Worlds, which was in Bulawayo, in the southwest of Zimbabwe, turned off. The apartheid drama based on a true story and the film based on a screenplay of the South African Shawn Slovo, daughter of the two anti -apartheid activists Ruth First and Joe Slovo. Two worlds is settled in the 1960s, in the white enclave Johannesburg. At the center of the 13 -year-old Molly is white (played by Jodhi May ), whose father is forced to flee as an opponent of South African apartheid regime into exile. The girl then tried his mother's affection (Barbara Hershey ) to win the encounter but alone continues her husband's work and her daughter unloving.
Although Linda Mvusi, much like the young Briton Jodhi May had no acting experience possessed, she got the part of the black housekeeper Elsie that addresses the child. In preparation for the role she met with many women she knew, who worked as housekeepers. Before Mvusi even participated in the film, she had a fear that outsiders would stage for a foreign audience two worlds with foreign money and the Africans would not be able to tell their own story. Menges impressed them but the fact that he won local witnesses for the ensemble cast. The burgeoning fear on the set, the parallel narrative Elsies who is the sister of a political activist (played by Albee Lesotho), could be forced through the Hershey and May in the background, was not fulfilled. " ... When I saw him ( the movie ) on the big screen, I thought, ' We have not lost the battle '. Chris ( Menges ) is in his experience so rich Man, that he is completely unalterable. This type of collaboration made it possible for some of the complex reality of the culture to be accommodated in the film, "says Mvusi.
Mvusis acting performance was rewarded in 1988 with the premiere of two worlds at the Film Festival of Cannes, where the South African together with Barbara Hershey and Jodhi May was awarded the prize for best actress of the film festival. She was the first African woman and first black actress who won the award.
In the U.S., Newsweek Linda Mvusis Elsie rated as "surprisingly good", but it should mean for the South African Two worlds only appearance in a feature film. She returned to her old job back as an architect and now maintains an office in Johannesburg. In 2004, she was honored for her participation in the construction of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg with the price of the South African Institute of Architects ( SAIA ). As a longer -term goals Mvusi named in 2004, the development of rural areas. "Our job is to be felt to realize the freedom within a shared prosperity ," said Mvusi.