Aleksandra Vujcic didn't wait for the movies to come to her - fact is, she wasn't even expecting them. Luckily for us, they found her

One of the pitfalls of celebrity journalism is that it's often forgotten there are real people behind the hype. Aleksandra Vujcic is a reminder: one who happens to look like the long lost star of a '60s jet-set movie, or the girl that James Bond never met. Discovered in a New Zealand bar a little over a year ago, the twenty-four-year-old Croatian-born actress makes a storming debut in Broken English, which is released here this month.

Vujcic is Nina, the baby in a family of Croatians that has taken refuge in the melting pot of contemporary Auckland. There, she takes a Maori as a lover, leading to increasingly violent confrontations with her rigidly Old World father (Rade Serbedzija). It's Vujcic's rawly sensual performance as the impetuous Nina that gives this melodramatic movie its urgency. "I really didn't think I'd find the right actress," says Broken English director Gregor Nicholas. "But when I met Aleksandra, it was unmistakable that she was someone who couldn't betray herself in front of the lens. She is so emotionally true."