Foreign Cinema Double Bonus Review: Tsotsi/L'Enfant

by Scott Gleine

Sometimes a simple story well told is all that it takes to create a strong reaction from a viewer. Unfortunately, this fact seems to be lost on many American filmmakers and sometimes the plague of over-stylized techniques makes its way across the rest of the world as well (i.e.- "Night Watch"). In no way do I believe that a film should come without any noticeable visual flair, but sometimes simplicity gets the job done just fine. This is the case in two critically acclaimed (and recently released on DVD) foreign films: Tsotsi, the 2006 Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film and L'Enfant (The Child), winner of the 2005 Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

After viewing each of these films within a week of one another, I was surprised to find that their stories both shared similar characteristics, but were handled in ways that are vastly different. In Tsotsi, the titular character (translation: thug) lives a life of crime as he tries to survive in the rundown, HIV-inflicted slums of Johannesburg, South Africa. A botched car robbery leaves Tsotsi not only responsible for shooting an innocent woman, but also the new caretaker of a small infant child. L'Enfant tells the story of Bruno and Sonia, a poor young couple struggling to raise their newborn baby Jimmy. Bruno also gets by thanks to a life of crime in which he sells stolen goods and splits the profits with his two fourteen-year old business partners. When left in charge of little Jimmy for an afternoon, Bruno blatantly avoids responsibility and sells the child on the black market, thus setting off a chain of events that teeter between compelling and somewhat unsatisfying.

Tsotsi's life slowly begins to take a turn for the better, or worse depending on the situation, as he feels the need to try and keep the kid safe while also hiding the fact that he has the child, since the police are now on the lookout. Writer/Director Gavin Hood provides a rich back-story for his character, showing us through flashbacks how Tsotsi was abandoned as a child. This sets up a logical internal conflict for Tsotsi, and the way the duality of his character is handled works well on all levels: the script, the directing, the cinematography, and the acting of Presley Chweneyagae. His performance is one of those jaw-dropping, breakout pieces of work that set ridiculously high expectations for the future roles that he is sure to play. As the story unfolds, the viewer is experiencing the changes right along with Tsotsi. Hood does a great job of keeping things as subtle as they can be, allowing the changes to be seen on Tsotsi's face and through his actions rather than expository dialogue or heavy-handed monologues. In the end, the film does a wonderful job of allowing the story to come full circle while still concluding in an open-ended fashion. Luckily, Hood chose this ending over the two alternate endings that can be found on the DVD, both of which felt like a bit of a cop out.

On the other end of the spectrum is L'Enfant, a film that left me a tad under-whelmed upon viewing but has at least managed to stay with me in the three weeks or so since I watched it. Perhaps the hype machine has once again foiled my attempt to enjoy a film to its fullest. Bruno's character follows a similar arc to Tsotsi in the sense that he has to learn to accept responsibility and finally grow up, all while dealing with unpleasing circumstances. Directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne make it clear that "the child" in the title refers not to little Jimmy, but to Bruno instead. Frequently throughout the film, Bruno is seen conducting himself in such childish and obviously symbolic acts as playing with a stick in muddy water and stamping his feet in the mud then jumping up against the side of a wall to see how high he can make a mud imprint on the bricks. In fact, the incident with Jimmy surprisingly does not occupy the majority of the film's plot. The baby is quickly retrieved, but as a result Bruno now owes a debt to the shady figures he was dealing with, who seem to be part of some bizarre black market baby selling mafia. One or two more scenes with these people could have helped out the story and set the stakes higher for Bruno. Instead, they threaten him once and are never seen again. To be fair though, that probably isn't the kind of film that the Dardennes set out to make. They crank the neo-realism meter up to full blast and keep the action (or lack thereof) focused on Bruno's struggles with daily life.

L'Enfant is certainly not a bad film, far from it. For me though, the story felt a bit thin (too much of the 100 minute running time is spent watching Bruno standing around and doing nothing) and failed to pack the emotional punch that I expected going in. It also seems a bit inconceivable that in such a realistic film, a character can be so stupid and selfish as to think that selling his girlfriend's first born child won't piss her off. Perhaps it is my own fault that I went into the film with such high expectations. If you're a fan of the Dardenne Brothers's previous films or you just can't seem to get enough of depressing, neo-realist tales, then by all means give L'Enfant a shot. If you're looking for something a bit more visceral, yet still intimate and touching, then Tsotsi is probably the way to go.