Writer and Director: Sandulela Asanda
A lesbian St Trinian’s? Not really. A lesbian Clueless? Closer. Black Burns Fast is set in an elite girls’ school in South Africa, where Black student Luthando has won a scholarship to attend. The teachers never let her forget it. She studies hard and keeps her head down. However, when new girl Ayanda arrives, Luthando suddenly finds she has new priorities. Sandulela Asanda’s debut film, closing this new year’s BFI Flare, is a fun-packed look at teenage sexuality.
Luthando (a vivacious Esihle Ndleleni) has only got one friend: the nerdy Jodie. Both of them keep away from the school’s mean girls, another group of Black students known as the Galz and led by the formidable Zenande. Luthando is dismayed that they appear to recruit the new girl into their fold.
But Ayanda is independent and asks Luthando for a tour of the school. Ayanda needs to find a hidden place where she can smoke her dope. Luthando shows her a forgotten art block where sometimes the other girls meet up with boys from the neighbouring school. The room, with graffitied acknowledgements of young love, proves to be the catalyst in revealing to Luthando that her schoolgirl crushes on other girls may not be as innocent as she first surmised; she discovers that she is a lesbian.
As the two girls begin a relationship, Asanda also explores the difficulties that the girls face in a predominantly white school. The Black girls feel that they have to study harder at their books, while the white students complain about quotas in universities. When Luthando argues with another student about the legacies of apartheid, she’s seen as a traitor to the aims of the Rainbow Nation and is put in detention.
But the politics of South Africa are worn lightly in Black Burns Fast, and they never become the focus, although they simmer constantly in the background. As Luthando begins to accept her sexuality, she also begins to find a new place in the school as she realises that the Galz aren’t as mean as she first thought. She finds sisterhood as well as love.
With animations and cheeky interludes, Black Burns Fast is a joyous, comical look at first love, with Ndleleni smashing the main role. Muadi Ilung is the cool Ayanda, and Khensani Khoza is terrific as the fierce Zenande. The film is the perfect finale to another successful BFI Flare.
BFI Flare runs from 18-29 March 2026.
