‘Bora’ is a psychological thriller that follows Elon, a naïve young woman who encounters Bora, a radical free-spirited stoner. The chance meeting sets Elon down a dark path as the two journey through southern California, with Elon discovering herself along the way.
Starting off with Elon (Ajima Cole) battling her subconscious as she wakes from a distressing dream, the woman experiences usual happenings as her home sound system plays haunting music and later her GPS system refuses to work. Suggesting a paranormal element to the story, the film soon leaves the odd occurrences behind and moves on to the introduction of Bora.
Played by the film’s writer and co-director Tiffany Toney, the creator delivers a free-thinking and radical persona through Bora. Encroaching on Elon and stringing her along to re-discovering the true nature of the place she lives in, Bora makes the two women break into a private yard, to go for a swim in the pool and for Elon to have her first experience smoking marijuana.
What follows after is Elon and Bora working their way through the shady side of town as Bora robs a liquor store, the two go to a drug fueled house party and eventually encounter a drug pusher at a brothel of sorts. With Bora taking charge and sharing her views on men, the state of the world and her disdain for the patriarchy, Elon is forced to face the unpleasant truths of the world.
At the house party, Bora clocks someone trying to put drugs into Elon’s drink. Managing to swap out her drink, Bora corners and kills the perpetrator, re-enforcing her extremist views on how people, particularly men, of immoral character should be dealt with. A further negative encounter with a police officer, following the two being stopped due to profiling, solidifies Bora’s unhinged and impenitent approach for achieving her goals of exacting retribution for the oppression of people of colour and women specifically.
The conclusion of the film reveals Bora to have been a figment of Elon’s imagination, borne of her repressed rage from childhood, as cut-away memory sequences reveal her to have been the victim of abuse at the hands of her father. The journey Elon goes on reveals her to have been pushed over the edge, seemingly from the overwhelming injustices that plague POCs and had cleft her personality in twain, allowing the woman to execute her suppressed rage and to go on a killing spree to satisfy her urge to reclaim power over who she is and what she believes to be right.
The film serves well to highlight the issues that a lot of people face each day, namely the caution with which minorities have to approach law enforcement officers, and how women in particular are constantly under threat of men. Not trying to be too subtle, the film delivers a clear message on being black in America and the constraints that people are born under and are unfortunately subject to every day.
With a roaring hip-hop soundtrack and luscious and vibrantly lit sequences, Bora delivers a visual treat to be enjoyed, pulling the viewer in to absorb the diversity and variety of the different sections of the film, growing more outrageous as the journey wears on. What leaves room for improvement however, is the editing of the film. With a few instances of poorly constructed continuity, the film can detract from it’s story, pulling the viewer out of the fantasy and forcing us to re-assimilate to fully take in the trip.
Somewhat disjointed and containing a few plot inconsistencies, ‘Bora’ works well as a woman’s downward spiral into complete madness as she fulfills her suppressed urges and takes revenge on those that she perceives to have oppressed her. Not too subtle an examination on what it means to be a woman of colour in America at present, the film delivers a slew of gruesome and vivid murders accompanied by an amazing soundtrack.
Score: 2/4
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