By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Gavin Hood
Starring: Kenneth Nkosi | Presley Chweneyagae | Terry Pheto
Country: south_africa, united_kingdom
Year: 2006
Running time: 94
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468565/
Bruce says: “Tsotsi (Presley Chweneyagae) is a thug of the worst kind, a man with no moral compass. He hangs around with a gang of friends committing whatever crimes they can pull of to keep a meager lifestyle alive. He lives in a shack but spends most of his time on the streets. One day Tsotsi attacks an upper middle class woman who has gotten out of her car to unlock the gate to her property. Tsotsi beats the women to the ground and steals her car. A sudden cry from the back seat reveals an infant in a portable bassinet. Rather than abandon the baby, Tsotsi takes it home and decides to raise it, not a great decision considering his lack of parenting skills among the other obvious drawbacks. Soon, he meets another woman, a single mother (Terry Pheto) whom he holds hostage, not for money but for breast milk and tips on how to handle a baby. Meanwhile, he has to hide the baby from his friends, lest they think he has gone soft in the head.
“By several measures TSOTSI is a very good film – certainly the acting is excellent; the cinematography and music, very good; and the editing, superb. To his credit, Gavin Hood depicts the violence and poverty of Soweto with little romanticizing. The viewer is given a very distinct sense of place that is as menacing as the set of a horror film.
“My words should be prefaced by a confession for not caring much for plots involving infants, especially plots in which the child triggers a denouement that is not altogether believable. Without the maudlin touch, however, it is possible that TSOTSI may not have garnished such praise and won big awards. To ‘get the message’ I prefer films like CITY OF GOD that rely on stylistic methods for grabbing the audience’s attention. 4 cats”