magid

Yesterday I was lucky enough to get to see a screening of the South African film Black Burns Fast. This story is set at a girls’ boarding school in South Africa, where straight-A scholarship student Luthando’s life is tipped upside-down when she meets headstrong Ayanda and is forced to come to terms with some things about herself.

In a lot of ways, Black Burns Fast is a typical coming-of-age/coming-into-your-queerness teen movie, but it was such a joy to watch that I didn’t mind retreading familiar ground. All of the main actresses put real heart into their performances, and Luthando is particularly captivating to watch. They’re so full of that bubbly, at times overflowing joie de vivre that is the province of teenagers.

The film centers not only Luthando’s coming to terms with her sexuality and her budding romance with Ayanda, but also friendship and family. Luthando’s relationship with her mother is a significant B-plot, and Luthando’s friendship with the other girls at school too—her longtime, equally dorky friend Jodie, and the “cool girls” with whom Ayanda immediately settles on arriving at the school. It was really sweet to see Luthando not only get to experience her first indulgences of lesbian desire and love, but also develop strong friendships with people who know her authentically (not always an easy thing to do for a young lesbian at a Christian girls’ school).

The racism the Black girls at the school face is touched on too, but only lightly. Luthando receives some backhanded praise for being a top student at the school, and when she snaps back at a white student who suggests Luthando is guaranteed to get into a good college because the school needs to “meet quotas,” it’s Luthando who gets sent out of class with detention.

The movie makes use of some video game-style overlays to show Luthando’s thinking which I found really charming. Alone in her dorm room, she envisions how to approach Ayanda for the first time, and switches between different “styles of Luthando” as she imagines trying a “cool” introduction, a gushy one, etc. After realizing she’s gay, she tentatively approaches the dining hall the next day with a little “love radar” pinging at the bottom of the screen as she scans the room to check if any of the girls there get her attention, now that she’s looking.

Although the film tackles some real struggles, with homophobia, classism, friendship problems, and racism, it is ultimately a very light-hearted film. It is not looking to dig into the nitty-gritty of these things; it is ultimately a happy story about two teen girls experiencing a first same-sex relationship and not having to suffer inordinately for that. It’s a very sweet movie and I really enjoyed watching it.