Nicholas Williams

The film Sarafina directed by Darrell Roodt is a musical film that follows the story of a young girl named Sarafina in South Africa during the late 1970’s. During this time there was a lot of inequality and injustice taking place. Sarafina’s teacher Mary encourages her students to learn about their history and to stand up to the injustices they were faced with. After Mary was taken away, it encourages Sarafina and her class to stand up and protest to fight for freedom which leads too many of them being killed and tortured. The themes in this film are rebellion, inequality, and freedom.

Sarafina features many recurring signs and symbols throughout the film. One recurring thing is the singing and dancing. The singing and dancing played an important role in the narrative structure of this film and also shows the culture that they have in South America. Another recurring thing is the school and the classroom. The school and classroom are a main factor in this film because the classroom is where a majority of the scenes take place, but it is also where Mary teaches Sarafina and her classmates about their history that starts their rebellion against the military. This films highlights and critiques socioeconomic status quo with the racism and inequality that is portrayed and shown in the film. This is shown with the police brutality and the mistreatment of black people in the film by white soldiers constantly harassing them, and later being tortured and harmed.

The music in this film enhances the narrative because it shows the culture that is set during this time in South America, and it also shows unity. The singing and dancing in this film is shown as a way to bring everyone together. It is also shown as a way of hope that goes with one of the most important theme in the film which is freedom. The film uses camera angles in multiple different ways. One shot that is recurring in the film is dolly shots. One example is when Mary is in the frame. At points in the film a dolly shot is used, and it will gradually get closer to her face or it will start close to her face and move away showing more of the setting. Other shots that are heavily used in the film are medium close ups, wide shots, high and low angle shots, and also tracking shots with the camera always following movement and not staying in one place throughout the scenes. In some instances in the film J cuts are used. One scene in the film that used a J cut was when Mary was taken out of the classroom. As Sarfina watches her being put into the truck the audio from the next scene can be heard as the scene transitions to her running to Mary’s home.

Darrell Roodt made this film to pay tribute to the things that occurred during the late 1970’s and the things that South African people had to face during this time, like being tortured and killed. In the beginning of the film it shares that over 750 people were killed and over 10,000 were arrested, and many more were tortured and assaulted. The film reflects race and ethnicity by showing the unfairness and inequality taking place and having a white government abusing power and showing discrimination towards the people in South Africa.

Film Reference: Sarafina. (R) dir. Darrell Roodt (1992); 117 mins.