Icon Movies

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.

She was their teacher. They were her hope.

Genres: Drama, Family, Foreign, Music

Starring: Leleti Khumalo, Whoopi Goldberg, John Kani

Released: September 18, 1992

Runtime: 117.0

Popularity Rating: 1.167

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Distant Horizons, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax Films, Vanguard Films

France, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States of America

Sarafina Leleti Khumalo
Mary Masembuko Whoopi Goldberg
School Principal John Kani
Angelina Miriam Makeba
Sarafina's Grandmother Mary Twala

Directing — Director: Darrell James Roodt