Premiering at this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam, Bokshi, directed by Indian genre filmmaker Bhargav Saikia in his feature length directorial debut, blends a coming of age drama with folk horror in its depiction of Anahita (Prasanna Bisht), a young girl dealing with the loss of her mother whilst on an unconventional school history excursion into the depths of an ancient forest.
After attacking classmates due to extensive bullying, Anahita’s father and grandmother send her off to a boarding school where she comes into contact with the enigmatic history teacher Shalini (Mansi Multani) who seems to tap into a darkness Anahita harbours within herself. Anahita joins the history class on a hiking trip through a forest which holds ancient secrets that seem to have a hold on Anahita. As the group are joined by shamans, the darkness from within the woods begins to become increasingly apparent, it begins to become apparent their lives may be in danger.
Filmed in the remote terrains of the Himalayas in Nepal, Bokshi is an exploration of a young woman’s deepest desires to connect with the missing link of her family and her cultural heritage amidst the backdrop of the divide between two of Nepal’s ethnic denominations. The film follows folk horror traditions by the rule book, with an urban life situated against the beliefs of rural dwellers, as well as nature versus human interruption.
Unfortunately, Bokshi is bogged down by not only its run time of nearly three but its sluggish pacing. The first half of the film, whilst it does add background information and motivation to the main character Anahita, it fails to add any historical or cultural context and could have been condensed in one opening exposition scene. Due to the extended introduction to the world of Bokshi, the impact of the conclusion fails to reach its much deserved impression.
With its incredible use of imagery in the final sequence, particularly that of a Venus figurine, Bokshi attempts to symbolise how nature and women are at one, and that the progression of the story is a reflection of how Anahita sees herself. With an explosive and bloody final sequence, Bokshi’s effort to demonstrate the horrors that are created through the oppression of peoples, whether that be due to gender, sexuality, ethnicity etc, is commendable, reinforcing the idea that it is in fact the actions of society that creates monsters.
3 Screams out of 5
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