Zoe Kravitz, the daughter of U.S. rocker Lenny Kravitz actress Lisa Bonet, wowed audiences at the Berlin Film Festival  with her starring role in the film “Yelling to the Sky."

In the Victoria Mahoney movie, Kravitz plays the role of a troubled teen New Yorker, Sweetness O'Hara. She is a daughter of a depressive African-American woman and a New York Irish alcoholic.

This is Mahoney's debut feature, which is also semi-autobiographical.

The harrowing movie proved to be a stretch for the young actress who nabbed the role over 200 other competitors. Kravitz stars in nearly every scene in the movie.

Kravitz told Agence France-Presse, "Even though I didn't grow up in those kinds of circumstances -- I was very blessed -- I was still lost and confused and alone and sad and angry, all the very human emotions that I think we all feel.  So I think at the end of the day, we are all Sweetness."

Sweetness starts off in life as a bright well liked girl. However, after her friend Roland, played by Tariq Trotter, from the Roots, is shot, the troubles at home begins to catch up on her.

Mahoney commented that there is a long tradition of these kinds of gritty stories being told on screen by those from the affected communities.

She said, "The only thing that is unique about this particular film and ‘Precious’ is that we are in a moment where our films get financed.  If we go to Eugene O'Neill's (1956 play) ‘Long Day's Journey Into Night’ this exact topic was discussed -- the alcoholism and the violence and the pain -- it's not original. The thing that is new and exciting, I imagine and I hope, is that it's coming from a different perspective."

The 22-year-old Kravitz said that Hollywood would probably have very little interest in a movie about a biracial girl growing up in a working class community in Queens. "That's a unicorn in Hollywood, that's a four-leafed clover, that's a leprechaun -- I mean you don't see them,” she said.