the audience applauded

Powerful

Absolutely Brilliant!

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I've always love this movie from when I was a kid. I saw this movie when video cassette was still the main thing to watch a movies. Just recently, I bought Sarafina DVD on Amazon but some of the music in the video aren't in the DVD version.There is a song, # 9 on the music track that isn't in the DVD version, when Sarafina's mother sang, it was more a whole clip of her singing and that isn't in there either.Can someone explain to me as to why that is the case? Or tell me where I can purchase the whole movie DVD. Track #9 was one of my favorite song which is why I noticed it wasn't in the movie when I re-watched it...

I am not a South African, but I know how bad life was for them back then. People world over should understand that music is a way in which Africans best express their emotions, so making Sarafina! a musical added to the flavor of the movie. Sarafina! reigns supreme to this day, thanks to Whoopi and Leleti. The scenes shown are not exaggerated. (People were really beaten and killed brutally back then). You'd need to watch more African movies(like Shaka Zulu, Ipintombi etc) to really appreciate the "music" part of it. Leleti Khumalo and Whoopi Goldberg hit home and act well together as a student and her dear teacher respectively. I wish we could have a sequel to it. All in all it is a GREAT movie and well acted.

Sarafina was a fun movie, and some of the songs were really great. Sarafina was very entertaining. I don't normally like music things like this, but the singing was not lame like it looked like on the box. The movie was useful for learning about history because it was an interesting perspective of the Soweto rioting of 1976. It showed you things from the perspective of the students in the rioting and showed you that they were real characters. Because you got to see them as real characters this makes you like them more as an audience, and makes you more sympathetic to them as totally the victims of the white government, who you can not sympathise with. The singing of the students is correct because we know from accounts that the students in the riot were singing and dancing before it became violent. The clothing of the students in Sarafina is very similar to the clothing shown in photos from Soweto. They made the movie actually in Soweto, which is why it looks very accurate in many parts. All these things make the film more accurate for someone using it to learn about aparthied. As viewers we must be critical of the way the history of Apartheid was presented. As I said before, you become sympathetic to the students - this makes it potentially less reliable and objective. Also, it changes some of the details from other accounts. In Sarafina it turns to chaos when the policeman comes into their classroom and shoots the students. The police and army were very aggressive at Soweto, but this is probably an exaggerated event. The police and army did shoot students, but there is not evidence of them going into schools and executing people like this. The fighting was more in the streets and had looting and crime. This is done in the movie probably to make you feel more sorry for the school students. The movie would have been more useful if it had some different information about aparthied. The teacher was arrested for being against the government, and the mum goes to work in a white persons house. But there is not any information about the government and why they were doing it or any details about the racist policies and laws. -By George S, Chris and Finlay

I just didn't get this movie...Was it a musical? no..but there were choreographed songs and dancing in it...Was it a serious drama....no the acting was not good enough for that.Is Whoopi Goldberg a quality serious Actor..Definently not. I had difficulty staying awake through this disjointed movie. The message on apartheid and the "tribute" to the students who died during a student uprosing is noted. But as entertainment this was very poor and as a documentary style movie it was worse.See for yourself, but in fairness I hated it