The South African actor Presley Chweneyagae, famous for playing the main character of the movie “My Name is Tsotsi”, Oscar for the best foreign film in 2006, died at the age of 40, the representative agency announced Tuesday.
Filmed in the municipality of Soweto, this feature film tells the story of a “tsotsi” (bully, in slang) of 19 years in Perdition in Johannesburg, who ends with the load of a baby found in the rear of a car that has just fought from its owner.
This discovery modifies its trajectory. He visits his childhood again, finds his real name, David, and begins to feel emotions and compassion.
“With a deep sadness that we confirm the premature death of one of the most talented and beloved actors in South Africa, Presley Chweneyagae,” Mlasa’s agency said on his website, without specifying the date or circumstances of his death.
The film that revealed that he was inspired by a news of the South African playwright Athol Fugard, an opposition to the Apartheid regime died in March at 92.
“A story about hope”
All the actors in the film come from the poor black suburbs, where life is a daily fight and where many, to survive, use a hard mask. This mask sometimes manages to drop someone capable of generosity and sweetness.
Presley Chweneyagae grew up in Soweto, where his mother scored it very early in dramatic art to avoid hanging out in the bands. He was 19 years old, the character of the character, when filmed in the film in 2004.
“This is a story about hope, forgiveness and the problems we face as South Africans: AIDS, poverty and crime,” said the 21 -year -old AFP actor in 2006.
Modest audience
If the director of My name is TsotsiSouth Africa Gavin Hood made box office successes like X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) Subsequently, Presley Chweneyagae’s career did not experience the same trajectory.
He arrived at the trade in the neighborhood theater of his original municipality, near Mafikeng, in the north of the country, returned to the meetings after “Tsotsi” in several performances of Shakespeare pieces.
On the screen, it only appeared in local films at the modest audience. We find it in the adaptation of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, A long way to freedomwhere Idris Elba embodies the country’s hero.
Source: BFM TV
