IN HARLEM, an overweight, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enrol in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction. The gritty PRECIOUS (15) – with Oprah Winfrey as executive producer and feat

IN HARLEM, an overweight, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enrol in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.

The gritty PRECIOUS (15) - with Oprah Winfrey as executive producer and featuring singers Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz - won the main prize at the Toronto Film Festival (last year won by Slumdog Millionaire).

Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, pictured left, stars in the lead role as Claireece "Precious" Jones, a 16-year-old born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father. At home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother, a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically.

School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret - she can neither read nor write.

Precious may sometimes be down, but she is never out.

The film is an adaptation of an award-winning novel, Push, by Sapphire.