MOVIEmeter
Top 5000
Up 2,422 this week

Tsotsi (2005)

7.3
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.3/10 from 19,733 users   Metascore: 70/100
Reviews: 165 user | 148 critic | 35 from Metacritic.com

Six days in the violent life of a young Johannesburg gang leader (Chweneyagae).

Director:

Writers:

(novel),
Watch Trailer
0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 702 titles created 03 May 2011
 
a list of 553 titles created 09 Jun 2011
 
a list of 924 titles created 28 Feb 2012
 
a list of 620 titles created 06 Jun 2011
 
a list of 64 titles created 2 months ago
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Tsotsi (2005)

Tsotsi (2005) on IMDb 7.3/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Tsotsi.
Won 1 Oscar. Another 13 wins & 12 nominations. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

City of God (2002)
Crime | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.7/10 X  

Two boys growing up in a violent neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro take different paths: one becomes a photographer, the other a drug dealer.

Directors: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
Stars: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Phellipe Haagensen
Trainspotting (1996)
Crime | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.2/10 X  

Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out, despite the allure of the drugs and influence of friends.

Director: Danny Boyle
Stars: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller
Crime | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9.3/10 X  

Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.

Director: Frank Darabont
Stars: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton
Crash I (2004)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.

Director: Paul Haggis
Stars: Karina Arroyave, Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle
La Haine (1995)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.1/10 X  

After local youth Abdel is beaten unconscious by police, a riot ensues on his estate during which a policeman loses his gun. The gun is found by Vinz who threatens he will kill a cop if Abdel dies.

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
Stars: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui
25th Hour (2002)
Crime | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

Cornered by the DEA, convicted New York drug dealer Montgomery Brogan reevaluates his life in the 24 remaining hours before facing a seven-year jail term.

Director: Spike Lee
Stars: Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper
A Prophet (2009)
Crime | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

A young Arab man is sent to a French prison where he becomes a mafia kingpin.

Director: Jacques Audiard
Stars: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif
Crime | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

A story about a troubled boy growing up in England, set in 1983. He comes across a few skinheads on his way home from school, after a fight. They become his new best friends even like family. Based on experiences of director Shane Meadows.

Director: Shane Meadows
Stars: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley
Crime | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

Saga of a group of childhood friends growing up in a Los Angeles ghetto.

Director: John Singleton
Stars: Hudhail Al-Amir, Lloyd Avery II, Laurence Fishburne
Mean Creek (2004)
Crime | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

When a teen is bullied, his brother and friends lure the bully into the woods to seek vengeance.

Director: Jacob Aaron Estes
Stars: Rory Culkin, Ryan Kelley, Scott Mechlowicz
Crime | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.1/10 X  

A man robs a bank to pay for his lover's operation; it turns into a hostage situation and a media circus.

Director: Sidney Lumet
Stars: Penelope Allen, Sully Boyar, John Cazale
Felon (2008)
Crime | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

A family man convicted of killing an intruder must cope with life afterward in the violent penal system.

Director: Ric Roman Waugh
Stars: Stephen Dorff, Marisol Nichols, Vincent Miller
Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Presley Chweneyagae ...
Tsotsi
Terry Pheto ...
Miriam
Kenneth Nkosi ...
Aap
Mothusi Magano ...
Boston
Zenzo Ngqobe ...
Butcher
Zola ...
Fela
Rapulana Seiphemo ...
John Dube
Nambitha Mpumlwana ...
Pumla Dube
Nonthuthu Sibisi ...
The Baby
Ntuthuko Sibisi ...
The Baby
Jerry Mofokeng ...
Ian Roberts ...
Captain Smit
Percy Matsemela ...
Sergeant Zuma
Thembi Nyandeni ...
Soekie
Owen Sejake ...
Gumboot Dlamini
Edit

Storyline

In Johannesburg, a small time criminal, Tsotsi, is a teenager without feelings, hardened by his tough life. After a series of violent gang hits, Tsotsi hijacks a car. However, whilst driving, Tsotsi finds that there is a baby on the back seat. He brings the baby to his house in the slum. The next six days bring about a change in him that couldn't be foreseen. Written by based on the review by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

baby | slum | criminal | ant | youth | See more »

Taglines:

In this world... redemption just comes once. See more »

Genres:

Crime | Drama

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some strong violent content | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Official Sites:

| |  »

Country:

|

Language:

| | |

Release Date:

23 December 2005 (South Africa)  »

Also Known As:

Thug  »

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$47,179 (New Zealand) (2 June 2006)

Gross:

$2,912,363 (USA) (7 July 2006)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

|

Sound Mix:

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

In urban slang of Johannesburg "tsotsi" loosely translated means "thug". See more »

Goofs

When Tsotsi enters the room of the kidnapped child, you can see (on the right hand side) that the wall paper is false. See more »

Quotes

Morris: Now look what you've done... you've made an old man piss his pants
See more »

Connections

Remade as Yogi (2009) See more »

Soundtracks

"Mdlwembe"
Written by Kabelo 'Kaybee' Ikaneng
Performed by Zola
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

Wonderful film!
30 August 2005 | by (Los Angeles) – See all my reviews

Unforgettable

Tsotsi is gorgeous, riveting, poignant, and thrilling. Not only is it a first-rate piece of storytelling, but it also takes the viewer into a world of South African poverty and crime that he has never seen before. Director/writer Gavin Hood offers us a tale of tragic redemption and uncommon poetry in a subculture of the most abject immorality. Truly unforgettable.

The only work in recent times to which this movie can be compared is City of God. There, too, the viewer is brought into a world of poverty and crime he probably never knew existed. It is a world so bleak that it forces the viewer to examine his own morality and wonder how much of the civility he takes for granted in his life is merely the luxury of the well fed and comfortable. These characters live on the edge and their primary passion is survival.

What makes Tsotsi, in the end, a finer film than City of God is that it offers a more complex sense of hope; it reminds us in an honest and unsentimental way that inside even the hardest cases there is a soul, which is never beyond redemption


127 of 162 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
'Tsotsi' versus 'City of god' yuriym1
Amateurish and sluggish smelybum
tsotsi or crash? mira10
Infamous Dog Scene - When Does it Occur/What Chapter? northface778
The dog scene mir788
Subtitle Typo ronspivak
Discuss Tsotsi (2005) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?