Image+Nation
BLACK BURNS FAST

BLACK BURNS FAST

SANDULELA ASANDA | SOUTH AFRICA | 2025 | 96 MIN | ENGLISH + XHOSA EST

SANDULELA ASANDA | SOUTH AFRICA | 2025 | 96 MIN | ENGLISH + XHOSA EST

IN-CINEMAFeatureFIRST FILMS

Subtitles: English

NOV 21 / 14:10Cinéma Public505 Rue Jean-Talon E. Montréal, QC H2R 1T6 (métro Jean-Talon)

Synopsis

What do you get when you place a teenage scholarship student of modest origins in a religious prep school? Now factor in race, sexuality, and an impossibly cool transfer student who keeps making eye contact from across the room? The answer is a refreshing comedy that never fails to deliver on realism, following Luthando and her entourage as they strike out on their journey of female friendship, teen drama, dating, and social pressure. This light-hearted and engaging romp follows an expansive cast, contrasting the wonder of youth and naivety with the trials of loyalty and betrayal, as well as friendship and romance, but above all else, the tricky nuances of obedience and rebellion. Black Burns Fast explores the transitional pains from adolescence to young adulthood and burgeoning sexuality, with thoughts and ideas processing visually through on-screen animation while text message conversation threads weave subplots throughout the prep school ecosystem as a microcosm for the world that lies ahead–a world of social inequality and double standards: whether for race, sex, or class, and the acts of courage in speaking up for not only yourself, but also for those whom you love.

Trailer

Filmmaker Bio

Sandulela Asanda (she/they) is a South African filmmaker from the Eastern Cape, based in Cape Town. With a background in Law and Economics, they earned an Honours degree in film from AFDA. Their student film Nongqawuse represented South Africa at the 2019 BRICS Film Festival. Their short Mirror Mirror premiered at TIFF in 2022, screened at Berlinale Generations in 2023, and won Best South African Short at the Durban International Film Festival. Asanda has also worked in film festivals, training, production, and television writing, including Netflix's Blood Legacy. Black Burns Fast is their feature film debut.

Director's Statement

The pressure and heat of these expectations that I felt as a queer Black teenager inspire me to write this film and name it Black Burns Fast. I wrote this film for a younger me and other Black girls to show the joys of girlhood and there is joy outside of the things that confine us. […] I hope that this film finds a place to do the same for young women of colour and others in their pursuit of joy and self-acceptance.

Producer

Cait Pansegrouw

Writer

Sandulela Asanda

Cast

  • Esihle Ndleleni
  • Mila Smith
  • Khensani Khoza
  • Muadi Ilung
  • Basetsana Motloung
  • Ntsimedi Gwangwa
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