It seems that the most compelling and emotionally exciting films being produced the last few years are coming from countries least expected, such as Palestine’s Paradise Now, Columbia’s Maria Full of Grace, or the 2005 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film and winner of various international festival awards, South Africa’s Tsotsi.  

Tsotsi is written and directed by Gavin Hood and based on the popular and acclaimed novel by author and playwright Athol Fugard who originally wrote the story in the 1960s when apartheid was at its peak.   The story revolves around a street thug named Tsotsi, which is also the term used for the runaways or orphans who survive in the ghettos by engaging in crime.  Tsotsi, we discover, ran away from an abusive alcoholic father who was scared to let him have any contact with his mother, probably dying from AIDS.  He forms a gang of similarly disenfranchised youth and becomes a powerful leader amongst the bottom rungs of society.  After Tsotsi carjacks a wealthy woman’s vehicle, injuring her and driving off, he soon discovers her baby is in the back of the car.  Haunted by his own past, he cannot leave the baby on the remote road and proceeds to try to take care of him on his own.  This begins a burgeoning process of redemption for Tsotsi that allows the audience to find a little sympathy for a character graphically shown not to be very empathetic.  

Hood and his producers needed to update the story because of financial reasonsm and it’s a good thing they did because it makes the film far more realistic and relevant than if they stuck to the 1960s time period.  For American audiences, it will be difficult to sort through the ghetto language of Tsotsi-Tal or Isicamtho — a mixture of local vernacular, Afrikaans and English — even with the subtitles. But Hood’s simple but cinematic visualization makes it easy to emotionally connect to the characters and their plights.  In fact, the ghettos and business districts of Johannesburg are not that different than those in the U.S., and some scenes do remind you of the images beamed into our living rooms after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

Rare is a film that has a lead character with few redeeming features, especially one that is in constant turmoil with himself and lashes out at others in violent rages.  It is the struggle of discovery of evil within oneself that fascinates us and the glimmer of hope that even the most despicable people can change themselves around.  It is why the recent attempt to keep ex-gang leader and death-row inmate Stanley “Tookie” Williams from being executed stayed in the news for so long.  

Tsotsi, in all its rawness and frankness about a segment of society most people would rather not see, is able to move you on both an intellectual and emotional level and makes you think about our own country’s attempt at curbing poverty and helping those sitting on the murky bottoms.  Some critics dismiss Tsotsi for pulling the heartstrings, but if you can put the obvious manipulation aside, you have a film that shows a world not seen by many, compelling characters who we can ride on an emotional journey with, and a story that is both entertaining and thought-provoking — all qualities you want in a great film.  Given this year’s politically charged Best Picture nominees, if not for the language, I believe Tsotsi would have been among them.  It is a film that gives a down and dirty view of our world but with a hope that, within every person, there is a gentle soul who pines for a world where love conquers all.

Tsotsi is now showing at select theaters.  Released through Miramax Films.  Running time is 94 minutes.  Rated R.

Rich Burlingham