Sarafina (1992)
Director: Darrell James Roodt.
Cast: Leleti Khumalo (Sarafina), Whoopi Goldberg (Mary Masembuko), Miriam Makeba (Angelina), John Kani (School Principal), Dumisani Dlamini (Crocodile), Mbongeni Ngema (Sabela).
This story is set in the year 1976 and is dedicated to the many young students in South Africa who fought and died against apartheid.
The story is set in the slum township of South Africa. Whoopi Goldberg plays the part of the combination music and history teacher, which might at first seem a strange combination of specialties, until one realizes the importance of music to the historical struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Sarafina is a young girl who is an idealist who combines both a desire to become a big star with political consciousness (she virtually prays to Mandela). She loves her music/history teacher because she also shares her two passions.
The white South Africans become very upset about reports of vandalism against white targets coming from the teenagers at the school. They start an investigation in the school and uncover the fact that the history teacher is not following the official, authorized, racist syllabus. The investigators focus in on the teacher. Visiting her teacher at the teacher's home, Sarafina finds an AK-47 rifle, and learns that the teacher's husband is involved in fighting against the white troops. Contemplating the rifle opens up thoughts of how much others sacrifice for the movement and the means, sometimes violent, that they employ.
Eventually the troops take the history teacher to prison. Extremely upset, Sarafina becomes involved in the efforts against black informers in the township. This leads to her participation in the murder of a black policeman.
The white police come to the school to arrest one of the students. The students react with outrage and come out into the schoolyard where the troops open fire on them, killing many. Then many of the students are imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured with beatings and electric shocks.
A deeply shaken and saddened Sarafina begins to reexamine her earlier, naive idealism and realizes that she has to reject violence as an answer to white repression. She also comes to a reconciliation with her mother, now knowing how difficult it is just to survive in a brutally racist regime. Dr. Patrick L. Cooney.
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