This B-Scheme movie may be less than an hour long, but this film does bring some fun in the Western genre as a man seeks revenge for the death of his wife.

Baba is a young farmhand who finally purchased some new land. He brings his wife and son and en route, they stop at a local saloon. Some of the men there begin to flirt and make the wife uncomfortable. Baba gets his family to their new home. Things start out great until one fateful day, the thugs show up. They set fire to the house and in the midst, kills Baba’s wife. Baba’s son survives and is badly beaten.

When Baba shows up, he grabs his son and cries for help to no avail. As he attempts to nurse his son, Baba feels helpless. That is until an older man arrives and offers to help. He helps Baba nurse his son back to health. In addition, he decides to help Baba. The old man is a master marksman and he offers to train Baba in the ways of the gun to get even with the thugs. Baba begins training and when he passes the ultimate test, he is now set to seek revenge.

This is a run by the numbers Western set in the Africa Wild West and features the cast decked out in outfits from that era. Written and directed by Coenie Dippenaar, this film was lensed by the “hero of the B-scheme”, Tonie van der Merwe. The film runs only 58 minutes and it may not seem much, but it still serves as a three-act movie that is just part of the B-scheme, an era of South African cinema which caters to the African audiences up to the end of Apartheid.

Cast in the lead role of Baba is Alex Ngubane, who gives off a good natural performance as farmer Baba, who goes from family man and farmer to Western avenger. You can see how natural his performance he is during his training scenes and when he finally begins his quest for his revenge. Roy Dlamini is great as the mentor of our hero while Vuzi Gudazi is also great as the villain of the film, the leader of a band of thugs. The last few minutes has that bit of slow motion to bring the impact in and it may seem laughable, but we are dealing with an era where this is totally acceptable and is quite fun to watch.

Revenge is a typical B-scheme film that still is a good time to waste less than an hour. If you like Westerns, you may just like this one just for the heck of it.

WFG RATING: C+

Gravel Road Entertainment presents a Conlyn Films production. Director: Coenie Dippenaar. Producer: Coenie Dippenaar. Writer: Danie van Rensburg. Cinematography: Tonie van der Merwe. Editing: Robert Thorpe.

Cast: Alex Ngubane, Roy Dlamini, Vizi Gudazi, Emannual Shangasi, Fikile Majola, Peter Bengu, Temba Shamba, Kitso Sithole, Abraham Foot.