Tsotsi theatrical trailer: YouTube
Tsotsi who is portrayed by Presley Chweneyagae in the crime, drama that remains relevant to the life that South African communities are still striving under, Tsotsi sets such a spectacle for the viewer. With the photography and the way the camera work is done in the making of the movie, the viewer is able to feel closer to home and relate better to what is portrayed by the actors and or actresses in the movie. The sheeben life where locals dance until the late hours of the night. The thug life of teenagers who grew up under tough conditions.
Tsotsi finds himself under a tree on a very cold and rainy night after a fallout with his friend in Soekie’s sheeben. In his attempt to steal a car after a woman struggles to open her remote-controlled gate, Tsotsi shoots the woman (Pumla Dube who is portrayed by Nambitha Mpumlwana) and speeds away in her car. This act alone is what changes the teenage boy’s lifestyle of being a criminal as he brings the car to a sudden stop when a baby cries in the back seat of the car.
The discovery of a baby by an angry teenage boy, tangled up in his criminal ways takes the viewer’s mind to what is viewed as fruits of patriarchy and toxic masculinity. The carrying of the baby in a brown paper carrier bag, to the baby being pulled from under the bed covered in a colony of ants from the condensed milk the baby boy is left with in the paper bag, under the bed. This raises the opinion that that men do not know how to take care of children, which may be relevant in Tsotsi/ David’s case as he never received proper love and care from his father while his mother laid in bed sick.
The day-to-day lives of some South African communities is portrayed in the cinematography of this movie, from people residing in informal settlements (shacks), poverty, to alcohol abuse. What adds relevance even better is the music selection in the movie, the South African artists such as Zola 7 and Mafikizolo are just perfect for this of movie once again, more people related to the genre known as kwaito at the time. Kwaito music adds authenticity and the ghetto kind of life lived in the movie.
The movie Tsotsi was brought to screens for the first time in 2005 and we were taken into the life of a teenager whose feelings had ran cold owing to the kind of childhood he was exposed to in his home. With a drunkard as a father and mother sick in her bed, Tsotsi runs away from home as a young boy by the name of David and ends up living in a slum with his friend Aap who is portrayed by Kenneth Nkosi.
A production that originates from the United Kingdom has set many apart with views such as racism and mockery of the living conditions of some parts of South African communities. Even with these views, the style of writing and directing that Gavin Hood put when the movie Tsotsi was made deserves all the applause he has ever gotten for the movie. The distinction of the lives of those living in urban areas is clear when compared to those that are unemployed and are living in the informal settlement that the movie focuses mostly in.
A story of life and death, the movie Tsotsi starts out with the criminals from the shacks of Johannesburg planning out their usual acts of crime with Zola 7’s “guluva” pumping in the background. Tsotsi who is the ringleader that does not speak much, arrives at the train station with his partners in crime Aap, Boston (portrayed by Mothusi Magano) and Butcher (portrayed by Zenzo Ngqobe). After scanning the place with their eyes, man is followed, robbed swiftly, and stabbed to death in a train full of people.
With Tsotsi’s upbringing being a tough one, he displays hatred for anyone who raises their voice towards him, especially men. This he shows when he stumbles in a crown of commuters coming out of a train and he almost falls over Morris, a beggar who is crippled and bound to a wheelchair. This is given away by how he follows Morris into what looks like a well-lit below of a freeway and throws a stone at him to get his attention. A startled Morris offers Tsotsi his money that he had made for the day as he assumes that is what Tsotsi is after but at what is almost a slow-motion shot, Tsotsi kicks away the tin jar full of coins. After an exchange of words and throwing of stones by Morris to Tsotsi, Tsotsi pulls out a gun and the old man cries and utters “Now look what you’ve done… you’ve made an old man piss his pants” in what is called an Afrikaans taal between his cries.
Since the departure of the duo, Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein who were the founders of Miramax, Tsotsi is the first movie release for the production.
Victor Phemba 