Film: Tsotsi
Release date: 17th July 2006
Certificate: 15
Running time: 94 mins
Director: Gavin Hood
Starring: Presley Chweneyagae, Terry Pheto, Kenneth Nkosi, Mothusi Magano, Zenzo Ngqobe
Genre: Crime/Drama
Studio: Momentum
Format: DVD
Country: UK/South Africa
Academy Award winner (2005) and Golden Glove nominee (2006) for Best Foreign Language film, Tsotsi gives a gritty and vivid representation of the life and hardships of the young ‘nobody(s)’ residing in the ghetto townships of Johannesburg. In this film-adaptation of the Athol Fugard novel by the same name, the South-African born director, Gavin Hood delivers a feature-length presentation confronting issues of the continuing rich and poor divide, of decency and criminality, and of human nature and happiness in his home nation’s capital.
Tsotsi (literally meaning ‘Thug’) is the gang-land pseudonym of the central character (Presley Chweneyagae), a petty teenage criminal in Johannesburg. The early scenes of the movie introduce us to his cold, calculated attitude to crime and violence as they take us with him and his gang from the heartless and violent killing of a wealthy man on a subway train, to his ferocious attack upon one of his own crew, Boston (Mathusi Magano). Then, across the wasteland that divides his township from the wealthy estates of the city, he embarks upon a lone robbery of a woman’s car from her as she waits outside her luxury gated home. The robbery doesn’t go as planned, though, and as the woman makes a desperate attempt to stop him from driving away, he mindlessly shoots her in the stomach and drives away. Tsotsi is soon startled by the gurgling sobs of a baby from the back seat, and realises that the woman was acting as a frantic mother.
It is here that we begin to glimpse what is an unexpected side to Tsotsi’s temperament, as he attempts to walk away from the car with nothing but a wallet, but the cries of the vulnerable child lure him back - he packs the baby into a brown bag from the car and takes him home with him back over in the township.
Over the next six days we get to see Tsotsi’s character unfold as a result of his obvious growing attachment to the child, and as we are given glimpses of his own childhood experiences that led him to become the angry young man that we have seen, the distinctions between right and wrong or good and evil begin to blur for Tsotsi as well as for the viewer…
Firstly, it is worth a nod of early recognition for the Tsotsi soundtrack itself which enriches the film with a legitimacy and honesty that transports the viewer to the very time and place. It consists of authentic Kwaito music, an urban genre popular in South Africa; the most notable of artists involved being, Zola, who has gained much recognition in the nation, and is a Johannesburg local himself. It is this universal South African influence (novel writer, film director, soundtrack artist) that arguably makes the film so intoxicating, and an offering of so much more culturally than what a generic Hollywood picture is capable of.
Understated performances from the cast of key characters enables the audience to capture an understanding of the complexities of each of them in their own individual circumstances. At times, though, they might be criticised for being reduced to little more than a measure against how Tsotsi himself is changing. Aap (Kenneth Nkosi), Tsotsi’s somewhat needy long-term friend and protégé is played perfectly to evoke a sympathetic response from the audience, and offers the only element of humour, too; but where Tsotsi is quite abrupt with him in the early phases of the film, he eventually comes to do right by him. Similarly, Boston (or ‘Teacher boy’) earns himself an early beating for flaunting his big words and questioning Tsotsi’s sense of decency. However, as his friend becomes to reengage with his feelings that have long been locked away, it is education that he encourages in Boston in order to help him out of the alcoholism he had fallen into since coming back to the township. The aptly named Butcher (Zenzo Ngqobe) conversely, captures the image of the remorseless criminal, and the way his relationship with Tsotsi ultimately develops delivers a decisive blow to the audience in demonstrating the man that Tsotsi has now become. Terry Pheto also gives a memorable performance as a widowed mother that is forced by Tsotsi at gun point to breast-feed the kidnapped child. She manages to play the part of a woman who is able to forgive Tsotsi quickly for his threatening behaviour so convincingly that it is only after the final credits that you find yourself wondering how she ever comes to be a willing source of help and refuge to him. It is only here that the fast pace and swift imagery that characterises Hood’s direction in this movie lets itself down.
Tsotsi is refreshing in offering a much more holistic view of South Africa than is usually offered. Where race-relation issues so often continue to dominate Western perceptions of South Africa, in Tsotsi, even where there may have been undertones, they are masterfully prevented from dictating the plotline. This simple omission quite eloquently places the film within a post-apartheid South Africa, and speaks volumes for the impact of the Mandela era in this respect. It is in this subtlety of imagery that the triumph of Tsotsi lays; and it is mastered not only in depicting the changing relationships between the characters, but also in succinctly and eloquently expressing huge themes through subtle imagery and excellent direction. For example, the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in South Africa is never overtly mentioned in terms of scripting, but with well-timed direction, the viewer is made vividly aware of the reality of the threat in this context by long-shots of billboards in and around the subway station that read simply “We are all affected by HIV and AIDS.” This later becomes significant to Tsotsi’s story, too, as in his flashbacks to childhood, it is implied this is the sickness that took hold of his mother. It is this kind of clever direction that allows Hood to achieve so much in a mere 94 minute running time.
The story of Tsotsi is a gripping and emotional tale which demands to be watched and rewards the concentrated viewer with layer upon layer of meaning. It is a triumph in tackling a number of issues simultaneously, and as a result, it is hard to imagine it not being enjoyed by everyone for at least one, or more likely, many elements of its fantastically crafted plotline. LJ
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