Tsotsi

The movie starts off with Tsotsi(meaning thug in the Tsotsitaals) and his gang robbing a man on the train. One of the gang members, Butcher, kills the man with an ice pick after they take his loot. Tsotsi, Butcher, Boston and Aap go to a bar afterward, where Teacher Boy (Boston) gets into an argument with Tsotsi. Boston gets his face lumped up real badly, and Tsotsi is kicked out of the bar.

Later, Tsotsi leaves the shanty town and heads up to the rich area near Johannesburg. He shoots a young black woman as she's pulling out of her driveway and steals her car. By the time Tsotsi gets away, he hears a baby crying in the back seat. He takes the child back to his shack in Soweto after abandoning the vehicle. The woman he shot survives in the hospital. After coming to, she helps make a composite sketch of Tsotsi.

 At the train station, Tsotsi follows a parapalegic back to his hovel in the middle of the night. He accuses the man of being able to walk and smacks his box of alms into the alleyway. Tsotsi holds a gun to the man and asks him why he lives like a dog.

 The baby won't stop crying, because Tsotsi left an open bottle of formula with the baby in a shopping bag and bugs get at the infant's face. Noticing a young woman at the water hole, he follows her and her baby back to the shanty she lives in. At gunpoint, Tsotsi demands the young woman breastfeed his child. She asks if she can wash the dirty baby afterward. While all this is going on, Tsotsi zones out to his childhood.

 His dying mother is bed-ridden and Tsotsi, then David, is by her side. His abusive, wasted father scolds him, telling him to get away from her. While his father is screaming, David runs outside behind some chicken cages. His father yells at him, telling him not to stare at him with fear. Their family dog is barking and his father snaps its vertabrae with two kicks. The dying, crawling dog whimpers as it exits the house just as David runs away.

 The day after, Tsotsi takes the stolen baby to a bunch of concrete cylinders that derelict boys sleep in. That's where he met Aap. At this time, Aap butcher and Teacher boy are being recruited by Fela, a local crime lord. Aap calls on Tsotsi and hears the baby crying. In turn, Tsotsi takes the baby to the young woman he demands feed the stolen child and leaves the baby there.

 Tsotsi goes to the bar where Soekie is looking after Boston. He tells Soekie he'll look after Boston and he asks Teacher boy whether or not he's really a teacher. Boston replies that he didn't have enough money to take the certification test. In response to this, Tsotsi tells the gang they will pull one more job to make the money.

 Back at the home of the woman he shot, Tsotsi's gang tie down John, the hospitalized woman's husband, and rob his house. While Tsotsi is robbing baby food, Butcher steals John's gun. Aap goes to make a sandwich, and John flips a burglar alarm. Butcher attempts to shoot John with his own gun, but a round isn't chambered. Tsotsi shoots butcher and he and Aap escape the house in the woman's vehicle.

 Soekie tells the police that she knows the face on the composite sketch and sends the police to Tsotsi's shack. Meanwhile, the young woman that feeds the stolen baby reveals that she knows where the baby came from. She first asks to keep it and then asks Tsotsi to return it. Back at the shack, the police question Teacher Boy, thinking he's Tsotsi. Soekie tells them otherwise.

 Tsotsi goes to the train station and gives the parapalegic man money from the stolen vehicle he scrapped at Fela's. He stops at the gate of John's home and says he will leave the baby. The security officers roll up and Tsotsi hangs onto the baby. After a confrontation, Tsotsi relieves himself of the baby and is arrested in tears.

 I thought this movie was great. It had both a driving narrative and excellent commentary on the disparity between the rich and poor as well as family.