2007 Program - Reviews, credits and stills 2007 Program - Reviews, credits and stills
Credits:
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Now to Tsotsi, the latest film from Africa dealing with the myriad of problems haunting that troubled part of the world. Tsotsi, whose mother died of AIDS when he was young, leads a gang of thugs who carry out brutal crimes in and around Johannesburg. After they stab a man on the subway in order to steal his wallet, the thieves have a falling out.
When Tsotsi, played by Presley Chweneyagae, attempts to steal a car, the pregnant car-owner tries to stop him. He shoots her. Only later does he discover a small baby in the back of the car. He takes the infant to his shack and tries feeding it with condensed milk; defeated in his attempts to care for the child, he seeks help from Miriam, (TERRY PHETO), a single mother who lives nearby.
This co-production between South Africa and the UK recently won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and the award was well deserved. Director Gavin Hood has adapted a novel by Athol Fugard, which was originally set in the 1960s, and has brought it up to date.
Making excellent use of the wide screen, Hood filmed in the poverty-stricken townships on the edges of South Africa's biggest city, and gives the viewer a powerful sense of what life is like there (the film is much better directed than the somewhat similar CITY OF GOD).
The theme of the film is the humanisation of the central character; at first Tsotsi - the name means 'thug' - lives up to his name - he's a dreadful person, who passes on to those less fortunate than he is the misfortunes that befell him. But contact with the baby gradually transforms him, and Chweneyagae gives a most beautiful performance as the youthful lout who discovers his human side. The film is suspenseful, touching, and seemingly very authentic, and there's an exciting music score too. Further Comments
DAVID: Margaret.
MARGARET: Yes. It is. It's a very affecting film. And you think it could so easily have been a sloppy, sentimental story - you know, thug finds baby and, you know...
DAVID: Finds his feminine side.
MARGARET: Yeah. Please! But, Chweneyagae, however you pronounce his name, he has got a beautiful presence on screen.
DAVID: He's very, very good, isn't he?
MARGARET: Well, he brings an authenticity to the character that is very affecting.
DAVID: But the whole film brings this authenticity. You really feel that you have some sense of what living in that sort of place is like.
MARGARET: It's funny that Athol Fugard wrote it in the '60s because that's when we all went to see the Fugard plays. But, er, you know, that it applies so much to today that same story, with this sort of like terrible underclass still in South Africa.
DAVID: So much has changed in South Africa and yet a lot hasn't.
MARGARET: So much stays the same. Yeah, look, I think it was really an impressive film when it could have been not very impressive, and they've done well.
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