Kazakhstan's Samal Yeslyamova wins best actress at Cannes

Kazakh actress Samal Yeslyamova won best actress at the Cannes film festival today for playing a jobless single mother from post-Soviet Central Asia adrift in Moscow in Sergey Dvortsevoy's "Ayka".

The 33-year-old actress, who also starred in Dvortsevoy's acclaimed debut film "Tulpan", was praised by the Hollywood Reporter for her "intense, committed performance".