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An open-top bus lurches through the South African township of Khayelitsha, the opera Carmen blaring from its loudspeakers. Perched atop a row of plastic seats, Andries Mbali, 25, sings along in a rich baritone, while his companions dance in the aisle, stamping their feet on the metal floor and cheering wildly. The melodies are Georges Bizet's, familiar to opera fans around the world, yet the libretto is no longer in French, but rather the tongue-twisting clicks and cadences of the Xhosa language.

The story of Carmen has inspired a diversity of interpretations and locations over its 130-year history, but Mbali and his fellow actors are promoting a version that transposes the tale of passion and jealousy to Africa, from the tobacco factories of Seville to this township on the Cape Peninsula. The movie U-Carmen eKhayelitsha proved a surprise hit at the Berlin Film Festival in February, even scooping the festival's Golden Bear award. Now its cast members are on a mission to drum, sing and dance up enthusiasm in their own community for the movie.

There has already been a gala screening of U-Carmen, a month after its Berlin triumph, in the unlikely setting of a spartan community hall in Khayelitsha, where South Africa's glitterati rubbed shoulders with dozens of township dwellers who had a hand in the production. And President Thabo Mbeki arranged a private screening for the Cabinet. The bus signals the next stage in publicizing the film. It's an unusual promotional tool, Mbali concedes, but the performer, who plays tavern keeper Bra Nkomo (Lillas Pastia in the original), sees it as his job to pull in the locals. "The people in Khayelitsha should be really proud," he says. "This is history, and they should be taking part in it." The bus weaves through a sandy Khayelitsha landscape of shacks and shipping containers converted into shops, past ramshackle food stalls where women roast sheep's heads, known locally as smileys. The actors hand out flyers and tell curious bystanders where to catch U-Carmen.

This isn't just about one movie. The backers of U-Carmen are hoping that their version of the opera will help create a new demand among black moviegoers. The country's film industry is clocking up international successes. Yesterday, about a poor woman from the countryside diagnosed with HIV, was nominated for an Oscar this year, and Drum, about the struggles of a dogged magazine reporter in 1950s Johannesburg, won the top award at Africa's premier film festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in March. At least 10 more South African films are lining up for international release in the coming year. But local audiences remain sparse and — like South Africa's film industry — predominantly white, and most movies bypass the townships completely. This time, however, it is wealthy suburbanites who have to make the trip out to Khayelitsha if they want to see the film before it opens in mainstream theaters in May. U-Carmen is being screened twice daily at a community hall in Khayelitsha — as well as in similar township venues outside of Johannesburg and Durban.

The actors all belong to the acclaimed theater production company Dimpho Di Kopane, founded by British opera directors Mark Dornford-May and Charles Hazlewood, and hail from townships across South Africa. Most of the production assistants, set builders and extras are local. Khayelitsha-born opera singer Pauline Malefane, 28, who plays Carmen, says that the story, too, has been made the township's own. The familiar tragedy unfolds in the atmospheric chaos of Khayelitsha among shebeens (bars), gangsters and the traditional healers known as sangomas. Women sing African songs between the opera chorus lines, and sway to the libretto with distinctly African rhythms. "Carmen is a very universal story," Malefane says. "It wasn't written for rich people. It's a story about people falling in love, deceiving each other. Anyone could relate to it."

And many people clearly do. Attendance was spotty at first, but now some screenings are selling out a week in advance. Ntobeko Rwanga, 25, who plays Sergeant Mongezi (Corporal Morales in the original), says that enthusiastic friends and relatives have dragged him out to see U-Carmen eight times already. "People here, they don't even know the inside of a cinema, but this will make them want more," he says. "We don't want it to end with Carmen."

• MEGAN LINDOW | Khayelitsha
• How a film version of Bizet's famous opera, relocated to a South African township, is seducing the locals