Omen
Director: Baloji Tshiani Run Time: 90 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 2023 Language: English, French, Lingala and Swahili with English subtitles
Starring: Marc Zinga, Marcel Otete Kabeya, Yves-Marina Gnahoua
Premiere Run! Fri, May 31 – Mon, Jun 3
Koffi, a Congolese expat living in Belgium, returns home to present his pregnant European girlfriend Alice to his family. He is expecting they will have to endure traditional rituals and pay a dowry to Koffi’s father. However, Koffi’s departure from his homeland was not a happy one—taunted as bearing the mark of the devil due to his birthmark, Koffi is ostracized and demonized by his community. One small act of kindness gone wrong causes his family to spiral out of control, bringing into the fray his sympathetic sister, his mother, and a young gang leader. OMEN blends magical realism with impressive fantasy sequences, weaving in multiple narrative threads that look at superstition, witchcraft, and other worlds through a visually arresting and impressive scope. – adapted from notes for the Boston Underground Film Festival
“The director’s gift for unpacking the way notions of witchcraft can function as fig leaves for trauma, combined with his obvious eye for costumes, lighting, and framing, make for a visually striking, deeply compassionate, and memorable debut.” – Arjun Sajip, indieWire