TSOTSI International Feature Competition

Winner of the People’s Choice Award at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, TSOTSI is based on the novel by renowned South African playwright Athol Fugard, tracing six days in the violent life of a young thug in the Johannesburg ghettos.

The name and nature of the main character is Tsotsi, which means “thug” in the street language of South Africa’s townships. One evening, after a bloody bar fight, Tsotsi (Presley Cheweneyagae) carjacks a woman in a BMW. He hears a noise from the backseat causing him to careen off the side of the road. He turns to find a baby, and abandons the vehicle and its cargo. But, for some reason, he stops and is compelled to go back and take the baby home with him. With no skills to take care of the child, Tsotsi forces a young mother (Terry Pheto) at gunpoint into caring for “his” baby.

As Tsotsi, Cheweneyagae captures beautifully this brutal battle with his own nature and the luminescent Pheto forces him to reexamine his very core. Director Gavin Hood is firmly at the helm of this relentlessly exacting film that unfolds with sharp insight and dramatic flair. South Africa’s Oscar® nomination for Best Foreign language Film. Director Hood is definitely someone to watch.