Tsotsi

Some lekker news! "Tsotsi", a South African movie, is one of the contenders for Best Foreign Film at this year's Academy Awards. See the Official website, Miramax website.

• Tsotsi is township slang for a thug or gangster. Tsotsies speak their own dialect of slang called Tsotsi Taal. Another distinct kind of slang called "gamtaal" comes from Cape Town, mainly used by coloureds* - here's a list of some of the words.
• The film is based on the novel by Athol Fugard, one of South Africa's most famous playwrights.
• I remember the writer-director, Gavin Hood, from his first big break on SABC TV in a soap-opera about rugby players called "The Game". Here's an older interview with him about his breakthrough from TV into film, and another about his short film "The Storekeeper".
• Gavin was also in what sounds like a dreadful Hallmark miniseries of "King Solomon's Mines" - Patrick Swayze played Allan Quartermain.
• NPR's Morning Edition interviews Gavin Hood and lead actor Presley Chweneyagae here.
• The movie should open in Seattle this Friday, but I'll have to make a date to see it next week some time.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the Oscars this year, partly because of this, but also because John Stewart is hosting!

* This term gets raised eyebrows from my American friends, but is still the term used inside South Africa, even by coloureds when describing themselves...