Have you seen ...

I have recently watched a South African film titled "Tsotsi" - a word which means "thug". This is a very well made film, based on a novel, which presents the contemporary drama of evil in the townships surrounding Johannesburg.

It presents the terrible struggle of a young black man for light. The film holds you between hope and despair until the very end ... I wont say what happens. The DVD of the film is now available for rental.

Although the problem of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa is absent from the film, it nevertheless expresses the brokenness of a society which bears the terrible consequences of Apartheid. It is a film which put me in mind of the "Christ the Healer Project" which works with the kind of young people we see in this film. It is a daring production because it reveals the deep scars in the black population of S.A. Our own culture in the UK is bordering on this, but I don't think that our struggle for light is quite as intense, nor our desire for Christ.