South Africa's iconic struggle film, “Sarafina”, has been grabbing headlines this year.
It tells the story of a protest against Afrikaans being made the official school language and stars a young Leleti Khumalo, Whoopi Goldberg, Miriam Makeba, Mbongeni Ngema, John Kani and Somizi Mhlongo with the screenplay by Mbongeni Ngema and William Nicholson.
In May, the 31-year-old film was selected to screen in the Cannes Classics section at the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. It received a five-minute standing ovation.
A few months later, it was digitally remastered and shown in IMAX theatres at Ster-Kinekor and Nu Metro in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana.
More recently, the film was honoured with a special screening at the at the 20th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival held in Morocco.
The all-time classic screened at the prestigious 700-seater Cinéma le Colisee with award-winning actress and lead star, Khumalo, in attendance.
Producer Anant Singh said: “We are delighted that Leleti attended the successful screening at the Marrakech Film Festival where the audience acknowledged the powerful storyline and its impact on society”.
Now the film has been added to the Netflix content offering, making it accessible to the global audience.
Since the premiere on November 26, the film emerged as one of the Top 10 feature films on the streaming platform, which is unprecedented for a film that was originally released over 30 years ago.
"We are also thrilled that ‘Sarafina!’ has achieved Top Ten status on Netflix this week. The Netflix platform has opened up a whole new audience for ‘Sarafina!’ and further entrenches the film as an audience favourite among a multi-generational audience.
“‘Sarafina!’ continues to enchant audiences after three decades and has achieved cult status. The Netflix success follows this trend.” he shared.