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'Tsotsi' yields an emotionally charged performance

You know, it's hard out there for a punk. Especially when you have to live in a Soweto shantytown.

Winner of the best foreign language Oscar at this year's Academy Awards, the affecting South African film "Tsotsi" takes its name from its protagonist — a baby-faced hoodlum (newcomer Presley Chweneyagae) whose name literally translates as "thug." He runs with — and pretty much runs — a small gang of nasty boys who spend their time stealing from and roughing up other people.

Miramax Films 'Tsotsi' B+ The verdict: Best foreign language Oscar-winning film may be obvious at times, but it's also quite powerful. Director: Gavin Hood Starring: Presley Chweneyagae, Mothusi Magano, Kenneth Nkosi, Zenzo Ngqobe, Terry Pheto Run time: 94 minutes Release date: Feb. 24, 2006 Rating: R for language and some strong violent content. Language: In Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans with English subtitles. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Out on his own in a wealthy gated community, Tsotsi carjacks a BMW and shoots the woman who owns the car. But driving away, he hears gurgles and coos in the back seat. No wonder the woman was so frantic. Along with her car, he's inadvertently taken her child.

Thus begins Tsotsi's unsought redemption. Instead of dumping the infant on the side of the road, he hauls it home (ironically in a shopping bag from an ultra-chic store). And for no apparent reason, at least given his rap sheet, tries to take care of it.

Granted, he does so in his own way. Newspapers serve as makeshift diapers. Leaving a can of condensed milk with the hungry kid, he comes home to an ant-covered baby. So he finds a pretty young woman (well played by Terry Pheto) to be a wet nurse. At gunpoint.

As you've probably guessed, in showing compassion for another human being, he opens up something human in himself.

Updated from a novel written several decades ago by Athol Fugard, "Tsotsi" clearly wears its heart on its sleeve, and its life lessons are writ large. Very large. A times, the film recalls those gutsy gangster movies from the '30s. The feeling is reinforced by Chweneyagae, who bristles with the cock-of-the-walk audaciousness of a young Jimmy Cagney.

In one immensely disturbing scene, Tsotsi and his guys case a subway station like a pride of lions casing a herd of gazelles. A middle-aged man makes the mistake of flashing a wad of cash, and they follow him into the subway, where Tsotsi unflinchingly murders him for his wallet.

It's a sickeningly powerful scene, as is one in which Tsotsi hounds a homeless crippled man, finally cornering him in a deserted part of town. But instead of killing him, he asks the old man why he continues to go on living. How can life be worth it for him? The frightened almost-victim replies, "I like to feel the sun on the street" — a response as simple as it is devastating.

"Tsotsi" offers that sort of life-affirming sentiment. Sometimes, all it does take is feeling the sun on the street to keep going. The picture can be squishy and obvious. Yet it works, thanks to Gavin Hood's straightforward, sensitive direction and his star's emotionally charged performance.

"Tsotsi" doesn't intend to be a realistic look at the hard-luck-life in Soweto any more than "Three Men and a Cradle" was meant to be a hard-eyed look at parenting. Rather, it's more like a compelling coming-of-age fable with a bittersweet ending. And a protagonist you're not likely to forget.