AIDS drama Yesterdayhas been selected as South Africa's official contender for the foreign-languageOscar nomination.

Yesterday, directed by Darrell Roodt, follows a village woman(played by Roodt's Sarafina star Leleti Khumalo) who has contractedAIDS, but is disowned by her husband. Alone, she travels the country fendingfor herself and their daughter.

The selection was made bySouth Africa's Independent Producer's Organisation on behalf of AMPAS. Yesterdayclaims to be the first-ever commercial feature in isiZulu (an everyday form ofthe Zulu language).

Strongest competition forthe nomination is understood to have come from Forgiveness, IanGabriel's drama about the Truth and Reconciliation process, but which containsa significantly higher proportion in English.

Yesterday was produced by Anant Singh's VideovisionEntertainment and HBO Films and is sold internationally by HBO Films London.

It was screened as a SpecialPresentation at last week's Toronto festival. (See forthcoming 24 Sept editionof Screen International for profile of Darrell Roodt.)

The deadline forsubmissions to the foreign language Oscar category is Friday, October 1.