User reviews

There is a tendency for South African cinema (such as it is) to want to see itself through the eyes of the world. Hence the many comments such as "this film could be set in LA" (ie: it's almost as good as an American movie) As a result, most cinema from South Africa is often very limited in its artistic ambitions and storytelling usually takes second place to making sure South Africa "looks good" on the screen so that "people overseas" will see "our beautiful country" The Australians used to call this the cultural cringe and it also took them some time to find their voice.

Tstosti is a wonderfully told piece of cinema set in the distinctive word of black Johannesburg criminals (I say black, because there is a very different world for white criminals)It works because underneath all the bells and whistles of great camera angles, phenomenal acting and- yes- its unique setting lies something much, much more important: A strong, strong story. A story about things that every human on earth can identify with (love and death). This is not a film for "people overseas"- it's a film in which South Africans to see and hear themselves as real people and not as feeble caricatures gleaned from countless Hollywood movies.

It might well be the start of a something great.

Normally, I am reluctant to slam another person's comments about a film, but I have to take issue with Noel-74. First of all, the arrogance of comments like, "You've got to be a complete idiot to believe you're seeing something new" takes me back to the self-important little twerps of my undergraduate days. So, Noel-74, if you are an undergraduate, my apologies. Let's hope it's just a stage you're working through. If you're over the of 25, please stay clear. I mean, seriously, your comment that there was something sinister in making abject poverty look so beautiful. Can any person look at the scenes depicted in that movie and feel anything other than horror at the conditions in which so many of our brothers and sisters live? Not to get all touchy-feely on you, but if you came away from that movie thinking about how beautiful it all looked, I'd say it was you, and not the movie, that could use a little more introspection. I liked this movie a lot. I thought it was moving, chilling, depressing and unpredictable. Even the ending (NO SPOILERS HERE) could have gone a bunch of different ways, several of which would have been more conventional than what we are left with. A very good film, with excellent acting.

Unforgettable

Tsotsi is gorgeous, riveting, poignant, and thrilling. Not only is it a first-rate piece of storytelling, but it also takes the viewer into a world of South African poverty and crime that he has never seen before. Director/writer Gavin Hood offers us a tale of tragic redemption and uncommon poetry in a subculture of the most abject immorality. Truly unforgettable.

The only work in recent times to which this movie can be compared is City of God. There, too, the viewer is brought into a world of poverty and crime he probably never knew existed. It is a world so bleak that it forces the viewer to examine his own morality and wonder how much of the civility he takes for granted in his life is merely the luxury of the well fed and comfortable. These characters live on the edge and their primary passion is survival.

What makes Tsotsi, in the end, a finer film than City of God is that it offers a more complex sense of hope; it reminds us in an honest and unsentimental way that inside even the hardest cases there is a soul, which is never beyond redemption

TSOTSI (2005) Set in South Africa, against a background of inequality and HIV, Tsotsi (played by Presley Chweneyagae), an unemotional small-time gang leader, develops an understanding of, and tries to grasp, family, belonging and caring for others. The unlikely catalyst for his redemption is a baby he finds in the back of a car he steals.

Director Gavin Hood engages our empathy and challenges our prejudices without stooping to Hollywood sentimentality. The film is filled with muted colours, swelling to golden tones as Tsotsi discovers his emotions.

The story's secondary theme is the understated but powerful role of women, typified by Terry Pheto as Miriam. She cares and nurtures, and makes beauty out of very little, including mobiles from broken glass; she quietly challenges the male-generated violence of the film.

By the end of the film the audience is moved by, and involved in, the narrative, and our awareness of the complexity of South African society is extended. This includes the soundtrack, featuring township music and a cameo role by Kwaito star Zola, the sparse dialogue in many languages, for which English subtitles are not obtrusive, and the scene-setting affluent and township locations. Tsotsi is a very convincing winner of the 2006 Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

For South Africans, both resident and in exile, this film is likely to be a harrowing experience. It shows us some of the consequences of what we allowed to be done in our name.

Cinematically, the film is superb, partly because it is so understated. It is probably an insight into a way of life all to common in African metropolises. Whilst it shows the way of life in shanty towns and was, I know, filmed in authentic locations, I found myself wondering whether the coloring was just a bit rosy, but that is a very minor criticism.

The director has coaxed a performance from his lead actor which is, I think, a landmark. So much of the performance is visual - he says very little. He is supported by a bevy of other characters which those familiar with South Africa will recognize all to easily.

If you do not have a South African connection, see the movie as an insight into our way of life. See it because it is a story worth telling and therefore worth seeing.

This traces a few days in the life of the teenage gang leader Tsotsi. When we first meet him, he and his friends are playing dice, deciding what to do that evening. And what they do is murder a man, stealing his wallet and leaving him behind on the train. One of the gang, Boston, isn't too happy with this. He begins to drink and to talk about how they lack decency. He tries to provoke Tsotsi into revealing some sort of feeling, asking him about his real name. Tsotsi means thug, it isn't the name his mother gave him. That doesn't work, so Boston asks has any woman hurt him. Still no reaction. Not even a dog, he pleads in exasperation, and his provocation bears fruit, as Tsotsi punches and kicks Boston in a brutal attack before running off into the night.

As he runs we get a flashback of a young boy, a young Tsotsi fleeing through the night. And throughout the rest of the film Tsotsi's childhood memories are intercut with the current happenings and violence. To say anymore about the plot would be to spoil some moments of the film.

There is a wonderful mixture of stillness, silence, and energy to this film. At times the camera lingers on faces, watching for a flicker of emotion. Other scenes are full of action and movement.

This is a film that does say that poverty is a driving force behind crime, but that is never allowed to become an excuse. There are other characters who are just as poor but do not react in the same way. It also never glamourises the violence, and while redemption may be at the heart of the film it never goes over the top in offering a happy ending.

This is actually one of those films you hope may have a Hollywood ending, where they can all live happily ever after, even though you know that that would render the rest of the film almost pointless.

I can't say I disliked the movie, but it wasn't a masterpiece. The subject of the story revolves around a black guy in South Africa, leader of a small gang of murderous robbers. Somehow, the details are really not important, he manages to develop a conscience and turns to the "light". As a result, he gets arrested by the police, so not much of a moral either.

The thing is that the film is very well done, the actions of the main character are very well played by the actor and the situations are quite original. However, I can't really say it's a South African thing (since it could have been shot in Romania with a gypsy as lead role) and also I can't say I felt sorry for the man at any time. So you kill a few people, you rob others, you maim... suddenly it's all dandy dory because you've seen the error of your ways?

However, the other good thing about the movie is that, originally, Tsotsi lived with a abusive drunk father, his victimised mother and a dog. He left when his father brutally wounded the dog. So it must have been some sort of human quality that made him choose that way. Maybe it took a while to regain it.

"Tsotsi" should be seen on a big screen in order to fully appreciate its varied and intense look, performances and sound.

First the look. Even as writer/director Gavin Hood has updated Athol Fugard's novel to the new South Africa of an integrated police force, upscale blacks who can demand their attention vs. abandoned AIDS orphans, the settings in Johannesburg vs. Soweto with their sharp and horrific contrasts are not something American audiences have seen and almost seem as if they are from a futuristic post-apocalyptic vision. Each character is dramatically and very emotionally defined by the surroundings we see, where they once or currently live.

Not only is Lance Gewer's cinematography from day to night, from barren openness of no man's land to the closed-in dense township simply gorgeous, he is particularly good at capturing the luster of dark skin tones swathed in colorful clothes. Many scenes, particularly the excruciatingly violent ones, are heightened with dramatic lighting.

The actors grab the screen even amidst this extreme mise en scene. Presley Chweneyagae as the titularly nicknamed thug is not just physically charismatic, but the changes in his voice are gripping in communicating the extreme range of feelings he experiences over the few days the film takes place. This is a road trip through his soul, from flash backs to existential acts from his depths to finding his humanity (and his real name). His relationship with a cruelly accidental foundling infant has no comparison to the dozens of films, usually comedies, made around the world about an irresponsible guy stuck with a kid and how a child can be father to man. While his picaresque physical and psychic journey is almost as theatrical in its coincidences as "Crash", the tension is built up as it is unpredictable in each confrontation whether he will react violently or redemptively.

Just when I thought his side kicks were undifferentable, even they turned out to have complicated stories that were well portrayed, particularly Mothusi Magano as "Boston".

Terry Pheto as "Miriam" is the very essence of woman as bringer forth of life, from her artistic talents to her nourishing milk. She is beautiful and strong. It is rare to see maternal love so powerfully portrayed on film as by the women here.

The soundtrack of local South African music is wonderfully atmospheric, and I'm dancing in front of the computer while listening to the CD now. Particularly outstanding are the tracks by local kwaito artist Zola which uniquely combine local and international hip hop into a new sound, as well as tracks with the inspiring voice of Vasi Mahlasela over choirs, which recalls Ladysmith Black Mambazo. With an attention to detail in the music, the middle class family listens to soft R & B on their car radio, in comparison to the township sound that surrounds the Soweto residents.

Bravo for the very legible subtitles throughout and translated musical lyrics, even as we can occasionally pick out some pidgin English amidst the township jive.

Nice to see that an art house in Manhattan could attract a significant African-American audience for this film even before it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

I really enjoyed this movie. The setting is harsh, the opening is violent and the violence returns at times through the film. But the message is of the redemptive power of love for children and the way that reproduction, even by proxy, is a civilising force. What's really remarkable, though of a piece with Fugard's hard-nosed stage work, is that this is all done without sentimentality and without a conventional happy ending.

The acting is outstanding in particular from Presley Chweneyagae and Nambitha Mpumlwana. The music is a revelation -- I've just bought the soundtrack from iTunes and am listening to it as I write this.

The political message that I derived from the film (though it doesn't preach) concerns the extraordinary patience of the inhabitants of Soweto. It's 16 years or so since change started happening in South Africa, but so few problems seem to have been solved. One doesn't have to apportion blame for this to wonder how long it can go on without serious problems arising.

Six days in the violent life of a young Johannesburg gang leader (Presley Chweneyagae).

This is a film about violence, crime and redemption. I am unclear what to make of it. The lead character was not likable, and his redemption hardly makes up for his crimes. So, not sure if I should applaud the film for its sincerity or be disappointed that the hero is not heroic.

I did appreciate the contrast of rich and poor. One could easily make the point that the rich were bad guys and the poor were good guys, or at least exploited and oppressed. But that was never apparent. In fact, the wealthy man is the victim here and we have no reason to dislike him simply for his wealth. And although we may feel bad for the homeless, there is no reason to side with them.

There was also a constant theme of AIDS in the background, though I am at a loss to explain what purpose it served.

It's almost unfortunate that this 2005 South African film was made after Fernando Meirelles' brutalizing 2003 "City of God" as the latter film really sets the cinematic standard for portraying harsh urban nihilism on screen. Instead of Rio's favelas, we now have the Soweto shantytowns as the geographic focal point. And instead of the unrelenting visceral intensity of the Brazilian film, director-writer Gavin Hood presents a story that begins with a fearsome veracity but unfortunately settles for a more conventional sense of plot structure and character development.

Based on a 1960 novel by Athol Fugard, the story concerns the title character, a teenage ruffian who heads up a gang of four in post-apartheid South Africa. A robbery-turned-stabbing in a subway triggers a lot of unwanted questions for Tsotsi about his past among his fellow gang members. He almost kills his best friend Boston before running away and finding a carjacking opportunity. Violence yet again erupts in this episode, but the surprise is that he finds a baby in the backseat of the car he stole. From that point, the baby becomes a catalyst for Tsotsi's humanistic character transformation, including an initially tense relationship with Miriam, a young widow and mother whom he seeks out to feed the baby.

For a film that starts out with such unblinking grittiness, it is surprising and a bit sad to see it evolve into an increasingly sentimental journey even with the jagged edge of violence present throughout. Some scenes, especially toward the last half-hour including an unnecessary flashback, come across as particularly mawkish, even though the ending does generate genuine tension. In his film debut, Presley Chweneyagae is impressive as Tsotsi, even when the script calls for his character to go through some awfully quick changes in short order. Terry Pheto is certainly a becalming presence as Miriam, though it is unclear to me whether the young woman has the welfare of Tsotsi or the baby as her priority. The other gang members are portrayed with acuity - Mothusi Magano as the cerebral Boston, Kenneth Nkosi as the befuddled follower Aap, and Zenzo Ngqobe as the aptly named Butcher.

The one aspect that deserves unequivocal praise is Lance Brewer's stunning cinematography which captures the burnished landscape of the shantytowns in vibrant detail. There are several extras with the 2006 DVD that are worth checking out, beginning with Hood's informative commentary and an intriguing 1998 short he made called "The Storekeeper". There are several deleted scenes included, but the most interesting are two variations on the final minutes of the film (Hood chose correctly in my opinion). A lively music video of the movie's propulsive opening song, "Mdlwembe" by Zola, is also included. It's necessary to use the English subtitle option since the characters are speaking a local dialect called Tsotsi-Taal.

More like a channel 5 Sunday afternoon film if your bored, still a decent watch but i wouldn't pay top dollar to see it, worth it if you borrow it from a mate, or see it on the telly on channel 5 on a Sunday afternoon if your bored kinda just went over that but i need filler for the review

In Johannesburg, the small time criminal Tsotsi (Presley Chweneyagae) is a teenager without feelings, hardened by his tough life. After killing a man with his gang in a robbery; hitting the gangster Boston of his gang; humiliating a crippled beggar along one night, Tsotsi hijacks a car and under the despair of a woman, he shots her in the stomach. While driving the car, Tsotsi finds that there is a baby on the back seat and the woman was a desperate mother. He brings the baby to his house in the slum and becomes attached to him. For six days, the baby changes his behavior, arousing and developing the sense of empathy and humanity in the cold blood killer.

"Tsotsi" is a touching, realistic and powerful story of redemption without being corny. Presley Chweneyagae is amazing in the role of a teenager without any feelings or respect for other human beings, with eyes without expression, and deserved a nomination to the Oscar. His behavior changes when he decides to take care of a baby that he accidentally kidnapped. I was impressed with the ghettos of poverty in Johannesburg, which are very similar to the slums in Rio de Janeiro. They are so distant and also so close, in a very sad reality of third world countries. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Infância Roubada" ("Stolen Childhood")

A Jo'burg resident myself it was great to see Jo'burg on screen in one hot film. I mean to often I get excited by seeing the Jo'burg skyline on the big screen and then I am sadly disappointed by the following weak film, not in this case. A great film with a great cast and great direction. Yes there are similarities to "City of God" but the story is much smaller and hence more personal; maybe it's because I live in Johannesburg but I found myself so emotionally caught up in the film that more then once I had to hold back tears.

Maybe there were some obvious uses of cinematic dramatic vices, yet the film held together all the way to the end and packed a serious punch. The lead actor was brilliant in his role which teetered between the victim and the aggressor constantly and consequently good and evil. A great cameo performance by Presley Chweneyagae. As a near graduate of South African film school this gives me hope for the cinematic future of our country.

Tsotsi has been compared to City of God by a lot of reviewers, but the similarity is only superficial thanks to location - in this case the townships of South Africa, compared to Rio's sprawling shanty towns. My memory of City of God - and it's a few years since I saw it, isn't one of redemption, which is what Tsotsi is all about.

Ironically, it is in this respect that the film is at it's weakest. Tsotsi, the central character, makes decisions that are both illogical and irrational throughout the film, and while it's perfectly acceptable to argue that real people are always making irrational decisions, when it happens in a film it really doesn't work. After brutally gunning down a woman who's car he's attempting to steal, Tsotsi finds a baby in the back seat which he takes with him instead of abandoning it as you might expect him to.

The decision pretty much seals Tsotsi's fate, but not before we are shown the parallels he draws between his own deprived past and the opportunity of redemption looking after the baby offers him. It's something of a stretch, it has to be said and you get the impression that writer/director Gavin Hood - who has moved on to more mainstream Hollywood fare recently - only has a tenuous grip on what he's trying to say. There's also some clunky symbolism at times - the swapping of a black leather jacket by Tsotsi for a white shirt in the final scenes, for example - that come across as the work of a film school graduate.

Having said this, Tsotsi isn't a bad film. For all it's inconsistencies and lack of logic, it provides an absorbing modern fable that leads the viewer to some sort of understanding of Tsotsi. Hood's direction is also good, and the cinematography first-class.

there is nothing i can really say to tell you why you should go watch this film right now without spoiling the film, but this film is powerful, detailed, well shot, written and emotionally grabbing. top performances by the talent of tsotsi, with the supporting cast all being equally impressive. This may not be for everyone; its not exactly art house, but there's enough dexterity and layers in the movie to scare away the Hollywood-type people. some films which can be compared to this film are the likes of city of god, even some larry David films like kids, and bully. in short, its a film which covers misplaced childhood and troubled adolescence. watch this as soon as you're able to and enjoy tsotsi.

10/10

Tsotsi tells the story of a tiny fraction of current township life, contrasting to a pretty normal upper middle class family in SA. It's a story about people, love, life, the choices we make, and situations we are sometimes pushed into. Gavin told it like it is (even though he's living in LA, as a talented professional he has no choice), he still remains a boertjie,(local boy), This is our story, 80% of the Art dept live in the townships, and us Umlungus (Whities) depended on our guys to bring across the authenticity of the township life. The direction is superb, I have had the opportunity to work with Gavin before, so this was a dream come true. The combination of Kwaito and Score was masterfully put together. And for what it's worth, Ian Roberts (white cop) really speaks in vernacular. I am proud to have worked on Tsotsi. Though sad, it is full of hope as well. Proudly South African.

The Oscar winner for 2005's best foreign film Tsotsi is not flawless, from my perspective, even as I see how it could, and did, win the top prize. The film has intensity to it, emotion, and some solid pathos for an international audience. It also has some very good performances, and with some professional camera-work and styling. The film tells of a poor, petty thief of the title role (real name David, which he shares with only one person), played by Chweneyagae. His performance is one where he does well in acting in reacting, as it were. His eyes have that level of anger and frustration, as well as genuine ignorance, that make him an interesting choice to play the character (at times I thought 'he reminds me a little like 50 Cent, if he had some ability'). The thief steals a baby from a car after shooting the baby's mother. He keeps the baby though, and starts to grow attached to it even as it needs attention and care. He brings another mother in on it to help feed the baby, while he tries to raise money for a friend of his (err, raise in the relative sense of speaking, by stealing). This character is portrayed very simply, as almost something of a by-product of the bad that comes out of the slums of South African cities- but the bad that the filmmaker wants us to understand has more dimension than meets the eye.

This film is the kind, for me, where there are some individual scenes sprinkled in the good, decently done scenes, as well as a couple that I just didn't buy at all in the framework of the drama. My favorite, which few seem to mention, is when Tsotsi confronts a crippled homeless man in a wheelchair, following him out into a field. The cripple is afraid, befuddled, and Tsotsi doesn't think the guy is for real. Then he tells a story about a dog, and how it can break in two kicks. This scene is handled very well by how its actors work off one another and how the filmmaker doesn't get to much in the way of style. But then another scene showing a flashback to his childhood, of when he experienced this, wasn't that much affecting to me. This extra bit of exposition wasn't necessary, aside from trying to establish the boy's attachment, and detachment, to his parents, which isn't needed as his own simplicity in the situations before (without dialog no less) with the baby work fine enough. Also, the ending, as some have said, is disappointing, though even more so is before it happens, when he is just walking around with the baby all day before going to the gate for the last time. Why is this done? Certain little moments tend to get in the way of the story really working as well as the actors do. Some scenes very much carry some power and strengths, and some not as much.

That being said, I was glad I saw the film, the first Miramax film following the Weinstein split (you can tell), and I hope this film will lead to greener pastures for it's writer/director and it's lead character (a few other supporting players are excellent as well, including the 'surrogate' mother). But 'City of God' it is not.

All I can do is echo the sentiment already expressed by some of the other commenters. This is CITY OF GOD meets HAPPY DAYS. The bipolarity of the ruthless thug (one minute a ruthless killer, the next minute a Luv's diaper commercial) is completely unconvincing. You can approach it in one of two ways: (1) A gritty, realistic movie turned sappy; or (2) a sappy, ABC-afterschool-special with profanity, violence and animal cruelty. Either way it just don't fly, do it? Why then has it received so much praise? As others have implied, it gets the "conscience vote" from the west. Show us pictures of poverty to contrast against our fluffy, double-wide theatre seats and 44-oz cokes, and we'll applaud in a heartbeat. But--oh--don't forget to candy coat it, because the bitter pill of reality (tantalizing as it is) is hard for us to swallow.

I'm terribly disappointed that this film would receive so many awards and accolades, especially when there are far more deserving works of film out there. All I can say is: beware of any film that receives awards (Hollywood Oscars = sweeping, syrupy tripe. Cannes Film Festival = beard-stroking, artless propaganda). To find the real gems, you'll have to work hard at it.