Academy Award winning for Best Foreign Language Film of 2005, Tsotsi is one of the best films to come out of South Africa.
Nelson Mandela once said
People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love'. Leader of ANC (African National Congress), he became a leading voice for many Africans enduring a long hard struggle. His revolutionary attempts to find a path to racial equality became the driving force behind civil liberties in South Africa .
A country blessed with an abundance of natural resources and a restructured economy, South Africa has reached a turning point in World Cinema. Paving the way to creating films that leave latter depictions of Freedom for all' to a more fresh, imaginative and gripping approach of what life is like on the streets, for a new generation that strives to make it.
In the confines of Johannesburg lies Tsotsi a young black thug, with little prospects but his swift panther like moves, pulling at many hearts without relinquishing any anguish. Fuelled, by a rage that is uncontrollable, he represents a life for many abandoned youths in the rundown shanty towns of Johannesburg. As we follow Tsotsi , we follow a series of brutal attacks, with little explanation as to why Tsotsi is the way he is. Leading a gang, he glamorizes the life of crime teaming up to rob the affluent, pulling at his knife without a second thought in such a manner that chills audiences from deep within. His team of followers Aap, Boston and Butcher, are lost youths with little experience, who look to Tsotsi for guidance.
Billboards paint the city, countless reminders of HIV/Aid's, a city hit by disease, illustrate and captivate viewers, with past recollections of Tsotsi's mother, a mother who struggles with the disease, as she pulls out her hand in a desperate attempt to hold onto her son. A father, who lashes out every time he has a drink, leads to the life of Tsotsi, a life on the streets. Accrued through an abusive childhood, a childhood that Tsotsi shuns and represses throughout the years, recollections of these times are finally brought to the forefront, at a local shebeen (illicit liquor bar), where he is urged to reveal his past.
Evoking such pain, it is here we are able to get a first glimpse into the mind of Tsotsi and the sheltered life he has led, a life of extreme psychological deprivation. As a result, the further prodding, digging and interrogation by gang member Boston leads to a predicted lashing out, where Tsotsi is forced to come to terms with his identity, his real name and his past life. Like a prisoner he has been confined to a cell, a key to a series of events leads him to escape this cell and confront his deep, dark past.
If eyes could kill, Tsotsi, would be first in the queue, his tiger like eyes and clenching fists, steer him towards an impromptu attack on a lady, to his surprise he stumbles across a baby he accidentally kidnaps through a hijacking. On impulse, his instinct triggers him to take and fend for this baby giving it the love Tsotsi never had, a love possessed but yet repressed.
Tsotsi , staggers through the streets, finding a homeless disabled man, in an attempt to alleviate his conscience, he looks to performing a miracle, however realizing that life is not that easy, he grabs hold of the baby, taking it as a gift.
He finds Miriam (Terry Pheto) along the way , swathed in Batik, her baby lies perched upon her back, she juggles her baby with carrying a bucket of water, embarking upon a steep path. This path forces her into a confrontation with no other than Tsotsi. Shamefully bearing her breast, she is forced to feed Tsotsi's newly adopted baby.
Acting as mentor and mother she brings out a life within Tsotsi and baby, befriending him. Will these events encourage Tsotsi to do the right thing?
As the film progresses, a lot like a tryptic, we hear the contemporary sounds of 'Kwaito', a modern music rooted in townships, creating an authentic feel of what ghetto life is really like. A mixture of English, Zulu and Sesotho, enthuses hip-hop, ragga and Jazz, homegrown popular dance, with rhythmically recited vocals to deep bass lines, giving the film a further edge.
Local actors get the lip quiver and movements to a T, creating a profound intimacy between viewer and actor, sustaining a lasting effect with its panoramic views and close-up shots.
The script contains a cheese element, however Gavin Hood directs the film into a fantastic, reflective approach on what life is like in South Africa, setting his film on the modern day struggles of poverty and Aids. Hood's film is more about class than race, beautifully crafted, he depicts the life of animal turned human, taking audiences by storm, we watch in anticipation as Tsotsi walks a long road to humanity. |
