'Tsotsi': offers hope that criminals can reform
"Tsotsi" (Miramax) --- South African jargon for a black urban criminal --- is the second film to open in February with the theme of a carjacking involving a baby in the back seat. But that's where the similarities end between the well-intentioned but flawed "Freedomland" and this Oscar nominee (for Best Foreign Language Film).

The Johannesburg underworld milieu is, at first, harsh and repellent. And from the early scenes where the vicious hoodlums, 19-year-old Tsotsi (Presley Chweneyagae) and his gang --- Boston (Mothusi Magano), Butcher (Zenzo Ngqobe) and Aap (Kenneth Nkosi) --- target a prosperous man on the subway, surround him on a crowded train, stab him to death and make off with his cash, you may feel the film will be too hard to take.

Matters are scarcely better when shortly afterward in a bar, Boston chides Tsotsi for his callousness and lack of decency, and Tsotsi brutally beats him.

But when we next see Tsotsi menacing a wheelchair-bound panhandler whom, we're sure, will meet some grisly fate, the man's piteous condition and indomitable spirit in the face of adversity breaks through Tsotsi's heartlessness, and he leaves the man alone.

Still unreformed, though, Tsotsi stakes out an affluent gated house, and confronts a woman returning home (Nambitha Mpumlwana), shoots her when she tries to stop him from stealing her car, and drives off. Only later does he discover there's a baby in the back seat. Against all probability, he bonds with the infant and decides to secretly care for it.

We get a glimpse into Tsotsi's past and learn that he had a rough upbringing with a violent father who kept him from his gravely ill but loving mother, forcing the young David (his real name) to flee home, and live with other homeless children in a desolate area with large industrial pipes as their only shelter. Rarely have the privations of childhood leading to crime been so persuasively dramatized.

Tsotsi can barely take care of the child in the squalid shantytown where he lives, so in desperation, he forces an attractive young widow, Miriam (Terry Pheto), to breastfeed the infant, the first step in a transformation that will lead to a redemptive ending that doesn't feel simply tacked on like so many films that wallow in violence or sex.

The film works as well as it does because of the superbly nuanced performances. Chweneyagae accomplishes the impossible in etching a hateful character whom we ultimately feel is deserving of great compassion. And he also succeeds in making his rather abrupt about face utterly believable. Pheto is outstanding, exuding, as she does, warm understanding for the thug who has invaded her home.

The dreary setting (brown tones predominate), the sordid action and the periodic acts of violence will not be to every taste, but if you stick with it, writer-director Gavin Hood's adaptation of Athol Fugard's 1980 novel ultimately becomes an incredibly moving experience and the finale --- with its haunting underscoring --- is sure to bring a lump to the throat.

"Tsotsi" has deservedly won a slew of international film awards, and has been dubbed by author-playwright Fugard as "far and away the best film that has been made" of any of his works.

The film (with subtitles) contains pervasive rough and occasional crude language, some profanity, two violent killings, a shooting, brief breastfeeding images, and gambling. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L --- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R --- restricted; under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

---Harry Forbes

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
Though talk of the best films of 2006 is premature, when the time comes, "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days" (Zeitgeist) will demand consideration.

Based on the true story of Germany's most famous anti-Nazi heroine, director Marc Rothemund's gripping drama chronicles, as its title suggests, the last six days in the life of Sophie Scholl (Julia Jentsch), a 21-year-old college student executed by the Nazis for treason in 1943.

Our first impression of Sophie, however, is not that of a political subversive, but rather a callow schoolgirl, singing along to the radio with another bobby-soxer, which makes her later heroism all the more remarkable and inspiring.

Hoping to incite a student uprising, Sophie agrees to help her brother Hans (Fabian Hinrichs) --- they are both members of a resistance group known as the "White Rose" --- to distribute anti-war leaflets on campus, an act for which they are promptly arrested.

Based on long-hidden official transcripts of the case, the remainder of the film details Sophie's intense three-day cross examination by Gestapo interrogator Robert Mohr (an understated turn by Alexander Held), the resulting "trial," and her execution. The parallel ordeals of Hans and fellow "conspirator" Christoph Probst (Florian Stetter) are given sketchier treatment.

Given the narratives' heavy reliance on dialogue --- most of the drama unfolds over Mohr's desk or in holding cells --- the film is surprisingly riveting, thanks, in no small part, to the superb performances across the board. Jentsch's composure throughout brilliantly captures Ernest Hemingway's definition of courage as "grace under fire." Sophie's calm resolve comes into starkest relief against the maniacal rants of judge Roland Freisler (Andre Hennicke), who presides over the jackbooted kangaroo court.

Like the protagonists in last year's similarly themed "The Ninth Day" (also from Germany), the exchanges between Sophie and Mohr become a battle of wills, as much as ideologies, as Mohr's atheistic views clash with Sophie's unruffled appeals to "decency, morals and God" and unwavering conviction that "all life is precious."

Despite his own personal atheism, the filmmaker has crafted a deeply spiritual movie, throughout which he shows Sophie, a devout Protestant, praying to God for strength. These interludes --- among the film's most moving moments --- briefly lift the veil of Sophie's calm defiance to reveal a humanizing inner anguish. (Not mentioned is Probst's last-minute Catholic baptism.)

Unvarnished by oversentimentality, the film is a quietly powerful testament to bravery in the face of evil that examines themes of freedom of conscience and peaceful resistance to tyranny while imparting a strong anti-war message.

Like that of the Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran theologian also executed by the Nazis, Sophie's example reminds us of the cost of true discipleship. And though imprisoned, in the film Sophie is much freer than her captors, who are blinded by soul-incarcerating lies and propaganda. Sophie's choice shows that the truth does indeed set us free.

The film (with subtitles) contains mature thematic elements, including suggested death by guillotine. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II --- adults and adolescents. Not rated by the MPAA.

-- David DiCerto

Harry Forbes is director and David DiCerto is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.