Sarafina!

Sep 18, 1992

1h 57m

★ 6.1

She was their teacher. They were her hope.

Overview

The plot centers on students involved in the Soweto Riots, in opposition to the implementation of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in schools. The stage version presents a school uprising similar to the Soweto uprising on June 16, 1976. A narrator introduces several characters among them the school girl activist Sarafina. Things get out of control when a policeman shoots several pupils in a classroom. Nevertheless, the musical ends with a cheerful farewell show of pupils leaving school, which takes most of act two. In the movie version Sarafina feels shame at her mother's (played by Miriam Makeba in the film) acceptance of her role as domestic servant in a white household in apartheid South Africa, and inspires her peers to rise up in protest, especially after her inspirational teacher, Mary Masombuka (played by Whoopi Goldberg in the film version) is imprisoned.

Genres

Music

Drama

Family

Production Companies

BBC

Vanguard Films

Distant Horizon

Ideal

Les Films Ariane

Videovision Entertainment

Hollywood Pictures

Miramax

Sarafina! Trailers

Cast

Sarafina

Leleti Khumalo

Mary Masembuko

Whoopi Goldberg

School Principal

John Kani

Angelina

Miriam Makeba

Sarafina's Grandmother

Mary Twala

Crocodile

Dumisani Dlamini

Sabela

Mbongeni Ngema

Lieutenant Bloem

Tertius Meintjes

Interrogator

Robert Whitehead

Policeman

Greg Latter

Soldier

Nicky Rebelo

Soldier

James Whyle

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