Botso (2020)
★★½ — Botso (2020)
Botso is a short film from Zimbabwe, running just 24 minutes and produced on a reported budget of around $100, which places it firmly in the microbudget, passion-project territory that has produced some of African independent cinema's more interesting genre experiments. Director Welensky Kaseke made it through his own Visual Threats Films banner, with a cast including Leo Jakata and Fadzai G.D Gwenhe, and the film sits within a modest but growing wave of Zimbabwean independent productions finding audiences through digital platforms rather than conventional distribution. The country has a thin theatrical infrastructure, so short-form digital work has become a practical route for emerging filmmakers testing genre ideas, here a morality-horror parable built around filial violence and its supernatural aftermath.
A-Z World Movie Challenge - CHALLENGE COMPLETE!! Zimbabwe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRhjPEiN7mA Botso, The Indignation (2020) is a bold and visually striking attempt at what could be called “Christian horror”. A rare genre blend from Zimbabwe that tries to fuse spiritual warning, moral consequence, and supernatural punishment into a cinematic parable. The story follows Tonde, a man who, after flying into a rage and striking his mother (a grave sin in many cultural and religious contexts) begins experiencing terrifying visions, nightmares, and what appear to be demonic visitations. The film leans heavily on symbolism, dreams, and spiritual warfare. Technically, it’s well shot. The cinematography is strong for an independent African production, moody, deliberate, often beautiful in its darkness. There’s real effort here to create a sense of spiritual unease, and the use of traditional imagery mixed with Christian themes gives it a unique local flavour you don’t often see in global horror. But narratively it’s all over the place. The plot lacks clear structure, scenes shift without explanation, timelines blur, and the rules of the horror are never fully established. Is Tonde being haunted? Is he mentally unraveling? Is this divine judgment or psychological collapse? The film hints at all of these but commits to none, leaving you confused more than terrified. The dialogue is often preachy, the pacing uneven, and the horror elements feel more random than symbolic by the end. It’s clear Botso wants to be a cautionary tale about anger, disrespect, and spiritual accountability, and there’s power in that message. But as a film, it struggles to balance message and medium. Ambitious, well-intentioned, and visually impressive for its context, but too disjointed to truly work. A fascinating curiosity, not a classic.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2020 | Watched: 2025-09-18
Related on Movies With Macca
More from the 2020s: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · The Long Walk (2025) · Americana (2023)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)
