TSOTSI

Summary

Is Gavin Hood 2005 Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film, set in Johannesburg, South Africa. The film is about the life of a young South African Gangster named Tsotsi. Who one night steals a car and finds that he has also stolen an infant. There is a moment, where he almost leaves the child, but comes back and takes him with him to the slums. Tsotsi is now torn, with the responsibility he took when he took the infant, and his life of crime. Tsotsi has what seems to be a complete transformation, were he question his choices. He leaves his life of crime behind, and almost relives his childhood through the infant, taking him on a tour of his own childhood. There is also a paralyzed man in the film, which appears three times all at different point in Tsotsi story. The man, who plays a role in his mentality, the film finishes with Tsotsi giving the infant back and giving him a chance at a good life something Tsotsi never had.

Theme

Poverty and violence are among the biggest theme in the film, in almost every scene of the film; the viewer is reminded that they are in the slums of Johannesburg . Among the most powerful scene are the flash backs to Tsotsi childhood which are shown all throughout the film. They flashbacks really help get as sense of what made Tsotsi the man he is in the film. Another theme is loneliness, this can be seen with the cinematography many of the shots are of Tsotsi alone and the vast emptiness around him.

Reaction

I enjoyed watching this film, being the only other South African film I had seen to date was District 9.This film explores a common topic in films, poverty, but in this case it takes place in another culture yet the problems are the same. The feeling if desperation, also that awful things happen to good people, as is the case of the mother who ended up in a wheel chair for just trying to get home. The story explores another subject, Tsotsi was made into the monster he was because of circumstances, but he showed that even with the people who are considered the scum of society; there is still some good, Tsotsi showed that with the paralyzed man and giving back the baby unharmed.