After spending years in Belgium, Koffi (Marc Zinga), a young Congolese man, returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa to confront his family and homeland culture. Secrecy and sorcery erupt when a nosebleed is mistaken for a curse, and Koffi is shunned from his family. Using magical realism to paint a portrait of “undesirables” and “sorcerers,” Augure (Omen) delves into the intricacies of identity, culture, and belief systems through a deeply rich and visually captivating lens.
Apr 25: Intro by curator Fegor Obuwoma
Through an elegiac journey set in a surreal Kinshasa, Congo, we follow several characters as they move between altered space and time, influencing each other’s lives and stories. Grief, duty, and family entangle to create a space of longing for what has been taken away. Koffie’s journey home sparks a series of events that take us through glimpses of the various characters’ family lives and dynamics, taunting time, reality, and even death. We are called to consider what it means to be obligated to communities that refuse you, intentional or not.
Fegor Obuwoma, …to glimpse: African Cinema Now! Curator
A remarkable accomplishment and a thrilling glimpse into the work of a truly visionary filmmaker.
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, AWFJ.org
Omen announces its writer-director as an artist of significant formal imagination and daring.
Guy Lodge, Variety
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Baloji
Marc Zinga, Lucie Debay, Eliane Umuhire, Yves-Marina Gnahoua, Marcel Otete Kabeya
Belgium/Netherlands/Congo/
France/South Africa
2023
In French and Swahili with English subtitles
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