Themba - A Boy Called Hope

Set predominantly in the spectacular Eastern Cape, this is the moving story of a young Xhosa boy who dreams of being a soccer star and longs for his absent father to return. His non-idyllic childhood in a rural area comes to an abrupt end when his mother is forced to look for work in Cape Town and he and his sister are left in the care of her lover. After Themba is raped, he and his sister go looking for their mother in Cape Town — this while his soccer team stands to win the Eastern Cape Junior championships. They find their mother dying of AIDS.

That's when Themba has to face the fact that he, too, is infected. Against all odds, he pursues his soccer dream of playing for the national team, Bafana Bafana, but does he have the courage to take a public stand and tell the world that he's H.I.V. positive?