TSOTSI

            TSOTSI is an Academy Award Winner for best foreign language film in 2005. TSOTSI is set in a Soweto slum, near Johannesburg, South Africa.  It is about a young boy that lives a life as a dangerous thug, that is known for stealing, killing for no reason, and other heinous crimes. TSOTSI  means thug and that is exactly what he is.  The film starts off with TSOTSI and his gang trying to figure out what they are going to get into for the night. It then goes to a scene with the gang on the train and they go to rob a rich man, while robbing him TSOTSI stabs and kills him and they run off. Some members of his gang question his cold heartedness and TSOTSI beats up one of the members because they did so. TSOTSI then runs to the suburbs of Johannesburg and shoots a woman and steals her car. While TSOTSI drives off he realizes that there is a baby in the backseat. TSOTSI then freaks out and brings the baby back to his shack. This moment is a changing point in TSOTSI’s life.

          TSOSTI finding this baby in the vehicle that he had stolen is what started him down the road to redemption. TSOTSI tries to take care of the baby and finds a woman neighbor that has a baby of her own and forces her to help him. While TSOTSI spends his time trying to take care of the baby he starts to move away from his thug life, he pushes his gang members away, and spends all of his time at his woman neighbors house. The reason why the baby brought TSOTSI to the road of redemption is simply because TSOTSI related to the baby and it brought memories to him of his child hood. When TSOTSI was younger his mother was dying from complications of HIV, and he had an abusive father. He figured out that it was best for him to run away to the Soweto slum, and grown up homeless in large construction pipes. When TSOTSI watches his neighbor take care of the baby it reminds him of how things were when his mother was alive and how she treated him. It brought him back to being David, which was his real name.  He eventually grows and ends up taking the baby back to its original family. He transforms from the Thug he had become to come back to being David.

          I really enjoyed watching this film and can see why it had won so many awards. It puts out there that anybody can be redeemed even the most cold hearted thug. It also gives the viewer a look at how life is in South Africa. The film  showed the background of David and how and why he has become such a cold hearted thug. Events that happen throughout our lives is what makes us who we are. One event can also be a big change, for example TSOTSI finding the baby in the backseat. This film is heartwarming and gives hope that people can change.