South Africa: Totsi (2005)

Tsotsi means gangster in the street language of South African ghetto. The protagonist of the film has been stripped of his real name and calls himself that way. A 19 year old orphan with no ties to the past and no future plans. At his young age he is already a gang leader marked by instincts that do not feel compassion for anyone. He lives his life being bad and hurting people without even feeling any regrets. At least, that’s what everyone around him thinks of him. But one day in one of his assaults, he crosses paths with a three months old baby and it is then when his road towards hope and redemption begins. Through the baby, he rediscovers tenderness and innocence. The audience is able to observe his slow but powerful transformation. It is story that develops at the outsides of a city in South Africa.

One of the themes that this film offers is how poverty and prejudice creates the new criminals. This film offers the audience characters of different social classes and shows how all of them are prejudiced against their fellow citizens in one way or another. Throughout the movie it is easy to observe how these characters way of seeing the world gets in the way of their possibility of living harmoniously with society, but specially with themselves.

Through out Totsi’s way of being and expressions it is easy to see how he is resented with society because he feels he never had a chance of being someone better. He is resented with the world because he hasn't found a place for himself.

What is interesting to see in this character is that all his feelings against discrimination make him a discriminator himself. He is not able to look at things from a more soft point of view . He is aggressive and he doesn’t care about anything.

The audience is able to see his character flourish into a new beginning when he starts letting himself feel again through the attachment he creates with the baby. His heart is clearly touched and this brings him to understand that his unhappiness is no motif to make other innocent people unhappy. We can see how he is a new man when he returns the baby and feels happy to see him back with his family.

Living in society is not an easy task, but the only way of living in peace is by opening our minds and specially our hearts among each other. Beautiful Movie!