Tsotsi

Tsotsi Movie Note

The development in South Africa

Opening scene: rolling dices/ gambling. Number is nine

Character in glasses is smart..not a killer, feels sick about the murder. Nickname: Teacher boy,
real name Boston. Cut himself because he has decency, he’s trying to see if he could feel
something.

The not so fat one is not so educated..the killer, his name is Butcher.

The muscle, fat one is a strong servant type. Almost like a soft one. His name is Aap.

Tsotsi (means Thug) – called the little gangster, that can’t drive yet. Is around 15 yrs old. Doesn’t
have a real identity, is portrayed as evil. The word dog set Tsotsi off. He beat up Boston and then
runs. He’s been ran before so they keep flashing back. He steals the car and shoots the lady, only
for a baby to be in there. So Tsotsi walks off with the baby because it’s crying. He takes it back to
his place and actually tries to care for it. He changes the diaper and makes a newspaper diaper
and then attempts to feed it.

At the train station people watching to get some money. They kill the man on the train with an
ice pick.

Soekie is the bartender.

Tsotsi gets called a dog again by a cripple. And so he follows the man he talks to him, pulls out
the gun and after talking to the man lets him live. ‘He’s sensitive to babies and cripples.’ – in
Sundae’s words!

He saw a dog and kicked it twice and it was crippled. He tells the old man this and then asks him
about his legs. He compares him to a dog. The man worked in a gold mine and it broke him, so
that’s how he became crippled. So the old man is now living to be alive.

He takes the baby to some lady to feed the baby.

Tsotsi is making the lady feed the baby. The women washes the baby. And Tsotsi has a flash
back of his mother. The relationship between them will be a mother-son relationship.

The mother of the kidnapped baby is in the hospital and has drawn a description of Tsotsi.

Tsotsi’s face is in the newspaper and they are looking for him.
Tsotsi’s name is David. He has a flashback of his mother. She is sick and his dad tells him to
leave. There is a family dog and it’s barking. So the dad kicks it twice and it becomes crippled. So
Tsotsi runs away from his family and that’s how he becomes who he is.

Aap comes to visit Tsotsi and Tsotsi decides to end it. He’s finished being a thug and quits Fela’s
gang.

The baby starts crying and Tsotsi takes him out for a walk. He tries to give the baby away to a
group of young kids. And one of them asks if the mother is dead. (I think that softens him…he
talks to them for a while.)

He takes the baby back to the lady. He starts talking to her and he asks about the lady’s baby’s
daddy – he worked at a factory and was walking home after dark and was killed. Tsotsi named
the stolen baby David (there is a deeper meaning.)

The lady is trying to get Tsotsi to give the baby to her, and he lets her have him for the night.

Tsotsi goes to the house of his old friends and tries to get Boston a place to stay by offering his
place. Boston goes with him and so does s the friends. Turns out Boston was on the path to
becoming teacher but never took the exam. He had the money but he found himself in the
streets and became an alcoholic.

Tsotsi and the boys go back out on a mission and they go back to the house where he had shot
the lady. Tsotsi is going back to the house to get stuff for the baby.

Tsotsi and Butcher are searching the house for goods to steal. And they leave Aap with him, he
sets off the alarm. Butcher tries to kill the man but Tsotsi kills him. Now that Butcher is dead,
the violent side of Tsotsi is dead too.

Aap – Tsotsi’s soft side

Butcher- Tsotsi’s violent side

Boston- Tsotsi’s decency

Tsotsi runs to the women (the mother figure) and she makes him food. She tells him that she’ s
seen the newspaper. She tells him to give the baby back. He takes “David” and leaves – she
offers to take the baby back for him. He asks he that if he returns the baby could he come back to
her place. (He’s looking for a motherly figure.)

Tsotsi apologizes to Boston. The bartender reports him. Tsotsi runs off with the baby on the
subway.

He wears white and is now a new man/ changed person. He sees the cripple man and gives him
money. He goes to the house and returns the baby. By now he has feelings for the baby.

He rings the bell and ends up in a situation where the cops are pointing their guns at him, and
Tsotsi is holding the baby. The baby’s dad talks it out with Tsotsi. They get the baby back and
Tsotsi surrenders to the police.
 The End.

Bonus Features:

The making of Tsotsi

Gavin Hood – director

Presley C. – “Tsotsi”

Butcher wants to question Tsotsi’s authority, so he doesn’t like it. Boston bothers Tsotsi because
he has an education and is always talking about decency. Tsotsi sees Miriam as a very pure
human being, the opposite of him.