Tstosi
David is a petty thief, a lost soul who makes no connections. No-one even knows his name. He’s simply ‘Tsotsi’, township patois for ‘thug’. He knows the scene, knows the odds, never panics – he leads a small gang. Aap, who’s known him for years, is a needy simpleton – the gang is his family. Butcher is a killer who uses a stiletto blade. Boston, once a student teacher, hates what he does, and mocks the others’ ignorance. When he drunkenly taunts Tsotsi for his mystique, his withholding of anything personal, his namelessness, Tsotsi loses his detachment, his cool. He beats Boston’s face to a pulp, and walks out on the gang. He steals a car, uncharacteristically panics and shoots the woman driver who wrenches open the car door. He doesn’t know it, but he’s stolen her baby.
It sets in train events where Tsotsi confronts his past, his own childhood, his anger and confusion. Based on Athol Fugard’s novel and shot in Johannesburg townships ravaged by AIDS and poverty, Tsotsi shows how criminality and violence are conditional, shows the abandoned child within the pitiless thug, and shows, without sentimentality, that there can be redemption.
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- directed by Gavin Hood
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Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
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