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'Tsotsi' communicates moods with clarity

Tsotsi means "thug" in South African street slang, and the title character in this year's Oscar-winning foreign language film is the personification of evil. From the opening moments of Gavin Hood's remarkable movie, we understand that Tsotsi is unredeemably malevolent, then watch as he finds redemption from a most unlikely encounter.

Miramax Films 'Tsotsi' B+ The verdict: A South African street thug finds redemption from an unlikely source, based on Fugard's novel. 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 Rate 'Tsotsi'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Based on the great Athol Fugard's first novel, the tale was originally set among the shanties of Johannesburg during the early 1960s. Hood has moved the story forward in time to today, to save money by not having to steep himself in period details, to divorce the story from the bitter strife of apartheid and to bring in the continuing epidemic of AIDS, which afflicts Tsotsi's mother.

Still, when you see him stab a man on the subway for his wallet and then brutally beat up one of his gang members in a township bar, any sympathy for Tsotsi is out of the question.

It is when he continues his crime spree, hijacking the car of a middle-class black woman, shooting her in the process, that Tsotsi's life unexpectedly changes. For only after he has driven off does he realize that the woman's baby boy remains on the back seat and suddenly Tsotsi is shackled with responsibility.

Of course, he is completely ill-equipped to deal with the child, wrapping him in a makeshift newspaper diaper, leaving him alone for hours in Tsotsi's tiny, filthy shack to become infested with insects. And when he does take the baby out in search of help, he totes him about in a shopping bag.

Using his only skills, Tsotsi muscles his way into the home of a young single mother (Terry Pheto) and forces her at gunpoint to nurse the baby. Later he returns and her maternal instincts compel her to continue aiding for the boy, without the threat of death.

Tsotsi's conversion to caring could have been milk-curdlingly mawkish, but it stops far short because of the staunchly unsentimental performance by a semi-professional discovery of Hood's, Presley Chweneyagae. Many of his early scenes, and certainly those with the baby, have very little dialogue, but Chweneyagae communicates moods and frustrations with clarity and economy.

Ultimately, Tsotsi and his gang return to the scene of the hijacking, hoping to give back the baby, and the ensuing standoff with the police has just the right amount of tension, melodrama and uplift.

Hood, himself a native South African, captures the many strata of Johannesburg with eye-opening views. Most vivid is a row of large water conduit piping, which homeless youngsters have appropriated as a shelter. Cameraman Lance Gewer takes us through the impoverished streets, up to the homes of relative affluence with sturdy gates and on to glistening overhead shots of the city.

It is hard to fully comprehend the life that Tsotsi has facing him, but because of the unusual events that befall him, we are drawn in and begin to identify and understand. And that is not a bad definition of what an international film should do.