Tsotsi is a beautiful story of loss and redemption. Tsotsi is a teenager who is finding his way on his own in South Africa. His mother was to ill to care for him and his father too angry and abusive. This caused Tsotsi to raise himself. He winds up running with the wrong crowd, a gang of boys who steal and eventually kill to make their way through the world. Tsotsi decides to go out on his own one night and steal a car. In the process he shoots a woman and unwittingly steals her baby. Tsotsi decides he will raise this child to somehow correct the errors of his own childhood. Tsotsi eventually has a moment of clarity and returns this child to the rightful parents. The father shows grace forgiveness to Tstotsi realizing that Tstotsi is but a child himself. 
The Parable of the Prodigal
Son is a biblical story of loss and redemption in which a son, most likely the same age as Tsotsi, requests his inheritance from his father so he can live his life on his own. This devastates the father as he loves his son very much. The son squanders his inheritance hanging with a wild crowd and has to live the life of a beggar on the streets. He convinces a farmer to hire him to care for the pigs in exchange, the son gets to live with the pigs and watch them eat their slop while he is fed nothing. The son realizes that his life was much better at home with his father and returns to beg his father to hire him as a servant. Of course, the father is filled with so much love for his son that he welcomes him back with open arms and will not hear of his son becoming a servant in his own home. The father shows mercy and grace to his son and forgives him. The son learns to appreciate the life that he has and to show respect and love towards his father.
WHY THIS CONNECTION?
Tsotsi is rich with Biblical references. There are many Biblical names and many references to cleansing , such as when baby David is cleaned by Miriam (two biblical names right here). In the Bible, Jesus comes from the line of David and Miriam is the older sister of Moses and she watches over him when their mother puts him in a basket in the water to spare his life. Much like Miriam watches over both David and Tsotsi.
The director of Tsotsi, Gavin Hood, was originally a lawyer in Johannesburg, where Tsotsi is set. He saw many of the children who grew up in conditions such as we see in the film. He was quoted as saying, "I think that issues of redemption and forgiveness are themes and ideas that South Africans have wrestled with more than almost anyone else..."(Accomando, 2006) These are themes carried out in the story of the Prodigal son as well, making these two pieces quite compatible. Also, many people know some version of The Prodigal Son whether it be the Biblical story or a secular one. Most people can relate to the loss/redemption qualities of this story.
The way that Gavin Hood told this story through the Biblical perspective really impacted me. I grew up in a church-going family and know these biblical stories by heart. This connection allowed me to draw deep meaning from the film that I might not have otherwise. As soon as we began watching the film in class, my synapses were firing connecting the biblical knowledge that I have with the trials that Tsotsi was navigating his way through. I really felt deeply connected to the film for this reason.
VISUAL AND AURAL QUALITIES
Visually, we see the great differences between the classes depicted in this film and from the language of the story The Prodigal Son.
In Tsotsi, we see children living in cement cylinders and poor young people living in a shanty town. All the while, the rich have beautiful homes protected by security gates. In The Prodigal Son, a young man leaves behind a comfortable palace of wealth and lives among the pigs in the field trying to eat their slop, in many ways like the people of the shanty town in Johannessburg. Both are very impressionable and disparaging visual depictions connecting these two stories.
The music that we hear in Tsotsi is sometimes contradictory to the action happening at the time. A wonderful example of this is when Tsotsi steals the car and shoots the woman. The music we hear is upbeat while the story playing out is quite sad.
This clash between the action and the music can be compared to the battle between good and evil, right and wrong, that we see Tsotsi constantly struggling with in this movie. This struggle is also evident with The Prodigal Son. He battles also with doing what is right and leaving behind what is wrong. Both young men are searching, ultimately, for redemption.
The music that we hear in Tsotsi is sometimes contradictory to the action happening at the time. A wonderful example of this is when Tsotsi steals the car and shoots the woman. The music we hear is upbeat while the story playing out is quite sad.
THE DEFINING MOMENT
The moment that really caused me to make the connection between these two stories were their endings. The Prodigal son comes home expecting to be either turned away, or at best, a slave to his father. The son is surprising greeted with open arms and is forgiven by his father.
Tsotsi comes to return the baby to the rightful parents. He has a moment of weakness in which he just wants to take the baby back with him to the shanty town in which he lives. The father of the baby comes out and basically gives Tsotsi the redemption that he so desperately desires in his life. He finally has a moment in which someone accepts him, even if it is only a brief segment of time.
