Tsotsi team gets a hero's welcome

Cheering fans thronged the streets of one of South Africa's toughest slums on Sunday to welcome home the makers of the country's Oscar-winning film Tsotsi, which depicted the harsh realities of township life.

Gripping the golden Oscar statute, director Gavin Hood, star Presley Chweneyagae and other cast and crew members paraded through Alexandra township near Johannesburg in an open-top bus after a rapturous welcome at the airport on their arrival from Los Angeles.

"Thank you for the massive support," Hood said at a news conference. "The world is very excited by South Africa, and by Tsotsi."

Tsotsi (Gangster) won this year's Academy Award for best foreign-language film, boosting hopes that Hollywood's stamp of approval will bolster South Africa's nascent film industry.

Tale of a gangster

Filmed in township slang, a mixture of South Africa's 11 official languages, Tsotsi is the tale of a township gangster played by Chweneyagae who steals a car and shoots its owner, only to discover a baby is in the back seat.

The film takes the protagonist, himself an Aids orphan, on a journey of redemption as he discovers the value of human life.

Tsotsi's Oscar triumph follows a string of high-profile successes for South African films including last year's Oscar-nominated Yesterday about a woman with HIV and U-Carmen eKhayelitsha, a remake of the opera Carmen in the tongue-clicking Xhosa language.

Box office hit

Unlike many South African films, Tsotsi has also proved a box-office hit at home, drawing real-life gangsters to cinemas from the townships as well as art-house film aficionados from the smart suburbs of Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Producers say the film outperformed recent Africa-themed hits such as Hotel Rwanda and The Constant Gardener.