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Celebrates Black Spirit Under Apartheid   One of the most
heartening qualities of art is the way it regularly blossoms out
in seemingly incongruous places. From the gardens of the
wealthy, we may see only pale malaise, while just across town,
in the slums, something in the darkness, blood and
impoverishment may fertilize a rose. Or a hundred of them.  The
South African musical "Sarafina!" (El Capitan), now expanded
into a vibrant and memorable film by its inspiring writer-
composer Mbongeni Ngema--is a joyous response to a desperate and
deadly situation: apartheid, martial law and riots in Soweto in
the mid-'70s. It's an intoxicating film, and there's something
both wounding and dreamily reassuring about its wild contrasts,
in the way Ngema and his collaborators, co-writer William
Nicholson and director Darrell James Roodt, mix musical fantasy
with a reality so raw, your eyes sting while watching it.
Against a scarring backdrop of misery and anger