From Beyoncé to the Oscars: Mary Twala, Africa's queen of cinema

The late South African actor was introduced to a whole new audience in Beyonce's Black Is King. But it's her final film - This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection - that could be her best work

Mary Twala died just a few weeks before Beyonce's Black Is King came out. In the film, the 80-year-old embodied the story's shaman figure, the last part she'd ever play in a six-decade career. The deep lines of her face, white paint over her eyes and red beads covering her head, made a striking impression, introducing the actor to a whole new audience.

Among its other virtues, Black Is King opened a portal for western audiences to some of the best talent from the continent - some emerging, others, like Twala, already well established. But for those only just discovering her in the wake of Beyonce's visual album release, the best of Twala's work is arguably still to come.