Tsotsi remains at all times an intensely human story, one that transcends the particulars of its time and its place.

A film of extraordinary viciousness and vulnerability about a criminal who has to meet an infant to remember he is still a child himself.

Without cheap deceptions, clever editing, plot conveniences or overt exposition, the film pulls you in and keeps you there on the merit of the story's substance.

But by placing the tale in contemporary Soweto and Johannesburg, South Africa, Hood imbues the film with a sense of authenticity that makes the movie seem more moving than manipulative.

Gavin Hood, adapting playwright Athol Fugard's 1980 novel, sweeps us out of our comfy seats and drops us into the stark realities of an impoverished world ruled by those most bold and ruthless.

Newcomer Presley Chweneyagae is stunning as Tsotsi; it's one of the most affecting performances of 2005.

It is Tsotsi's own unresolved infantilism that is the story's true Baby On Board.

It is a first peek at a South Africa that doesn't need a Hollywood studio or Hollywood stars to present itself to the world, or to come to grips with itself at home.

Stirring performances and well-aimed filmcraft.

Tsotsi makes its bid for youth appeal with a fair amount of violence and a soundtrack partially made up of Kwaito music...Ultimately, though, it boils down to a conventionally humanist coming-of-age story.