TSOTSI

Director: Gavin Hood (a couple of well-reviewed South African films without wide release)
Starring: Presley Chweneyagae, Mothusi Mogano, Zenzo Ngqobe, Zola (just Zola?)

Tsotsi is the most optimistic film I’ve seen in quite some time. I don’t know that I necessarily believe that the redemption that this film portrays is anything but a rarity. Nonetheless, its message is powerful and well-done, and I think that seeing this redemption can only be a good thing for those of us lucky enough to watch the movie. There is a distinct lack of optimism in our cynical age of lazy complainers. Apparently it takes a filmmaker from a land with troubles more profound than our own to find the hidden seeds of optimism and grow them into a fine film.

Tsotsi, as the movie tells us, means “thug”. This is what the young main character (Chweneyagae) is known by, and it is only much later when we see a glimpse into his childhood, and get a glimpse of decency in his character, that we discover he has a real name. For the first half of the film Tsotsi is as good a name as any for this animal.

He lives in a corrugated metal shack in one of the former homelands around Johannesburg, probably Soweto, where millions of destitute blacks are compressed together on the outskirts of Africa’s greatest metropolis. His is a simple story of redemption, but an intriguing one. Early in the film he leads a small gang of criminals. Criminals who go so far as to kill a man on a crowded train for his wallet. Frighteningly, it is done so adeptly that no one else on the train even notices, and the man is left in a heap on the floor as the car empties.

Tsotsi soon carjacks a wealthy woman’s Mercedes, only to find a new baby in the back. The wide, helpless eyes of the child draw out a glimmer of humanity in the thug. He takes it home in a shopping bag and attempts to care for it as best he can (which is quite badly). Eventually, in small steps, he grows and sees the error of his ways and the child is returned. He begins to connect with other people and (Voila!) he is redeemed.

Like I wrote a the beginning of this review. I don’t know if I really believe this story of redemption. Perhaps it would hold more truth if Tsotsi’s lesson in empathy and giving was soon forgotten, and he relapsed into selfishness. Even perhaps if his lessen in empathy weren’t quite so neat. Regardless, as far as I’m concerned, even though I may not wholly believe in this redemption, I know that I really want to. This was a touching and poignant film.


Standouts: Good story, effective acting, good direction.
Blowouts: I found nothing that was outstanding, just much that was very good.

Grade: A-