The movie Tsotsi takes the audience on a journey into a man’s past and his

There are more than three million people living in the town of Johannesburg; and there are three times more people living in the greater metropolitan area. That means that ‘Jozi’ belongs to the largest metropolitan areas in the world and has one of the highest crime rates in the world.Especially in areas like these the differences between poor and rich are as large as between day and night and the viewer is brought deep into the poor shantytowns of Soweto.
This is the context in which the story takes place. Originally it was written in the 1960s by Athol Fugard and set in the 1950s, where the apartheid regime started to take over.And now, four decades later, Gavin Hood, the director of the movie tells the story again, but under different aspects. Hood has updated Fugard’s book from the apartheid era to a present day in which class has replaced race as the country’s most pressing issue, the township and townhouse are in jarring proximity and HIV-Aids is the country’s biggest killer. In the sense it will be used below says that the protagonist of a film needs to build up an identity in order to be accepted by an audience. As it was already mentioned in the previous part it is not so easy for filmmakers to present a brutal gangster as the hero of their movie who should be accepted by the audience. Exactly here lies the art of filmmaking; namely to develop such a film-language that this is nevertheless possible.Whereas in real life most people would not be pleased to make contact with a person who makes his money with killing and robbing other people, in this film the situation is different. Gavin Hood manages it to present such a gangster and to provide the audience with information that have the effect that the viewer can understand the tsotsi’s behaviour and even tolerate the person (not the behaviour!). Tsotsi is a strong movie with an interesting story. The movie carries a certain authenticity as well as intimacy. This mixture makes it a special film which deserved the Oscar in 2005.The comparison of the pictures of the poor shantytowns and the richsuburbs is very impressive and transports the state disequilibrium very well. Also the idea to use the language, the people and the music of the shantytowns makes this movie so special. It is in fact this mirroring of everyday life that makes this film a lively and up to date piece of work.Especially the end of the movie is very successful because it leaves room for discussion about what happened and what can happen in the future. It leaves a certain hope that things can change to their better side.