Liya Kebede: from Desert Flower to queen of the jungle

Ethiopian top model Liya Kebede is to star in a French film for children set in an imaginary South American country.

In what is perhaps an effort to counteract all that posing for cosmetics giant Estée La
uder, top model Liya Kebede has put the serious pouting on the backburner and made a film for children.

Sur La Piste Du Marsupilami (On The Trail of Marsupilami) is a French film based on a series of Belgian comic books set in the fictitious South American country of Palombia (a portmanteau of Colombia and Paraguay, geddit?). The marsupilami is also an imaginary animal - or is it? That's what characters Dan Geraldo, reporter, and his local guide Pablito are on the hunt to find out.

But who should they encounter on their trip? None other than the beautiful Queen Paya, played by 34 year-old Kebede.

There was no language barrier for New York-based, Ethiopian-born Kebede while making the film, as she studied at a Franco-Ethiopian school in her native country, and kick-started her modelling career in Paris. The movie premiered in the French captial last night, ahead of its April 4 release. Naturally, the statuesque Kebede towered over her comic co-stars.

L-R: Liya Kebede, Aôssa Maôgan, Alain Chabat and GÈraldine Nakache at the film's Parie premiere

No stranger to the silver screen after taking a starring role in the 2009 adaptation of Desert Flower, the autobiography of Somalian model Waris Dirie, Sur La Piste Du Marsupilami is arguably perfect entertainment material for her two young children to see their mother in action.

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