Omen
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This magic realist film is a tale of family, relationships, suspicion and belonging. It navigates the thin layer between reality and sorcery to weave a distinct, deeply impressionistic aesthetic. It centres Koffi a young Congolese man who travels back to his hometown in Kinshasa to reunite with his family and culture. The complexities abound as four characters bring different worlds and perspectives which intersect through chapters in the film, each adding a new dimension as the narrative unfolds. (Aya Distribution)
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The best part of Omen is its first twenty minutes, in which the protagonist travels from Belgium to his native Congo after eighteen years to see his family, who cling to traditional values and once rejected him because of an alleged demonic curse. Instead of understanding and reconciliation, however, he encounters only unrelenting scorn, benighted prejudices and obscurantist practices. This part is absolutely excellent, but then the narrative unfortunately splinters among a larger number of characters and unsteadily spreads out to cover a broader range of themes, from shamanic healing of venereal diseases to the territorial rivalry of youthful street gangs. Despite being slightly chaotic and unclear, the fragmented narrative, arranged in chapters and taking place during the Easter holidays, still manages to be entertaining thanks both to its distinctiveness, which draws on tribal cultural traditions, and to its bizarre scenes including, for example, an African version of a gingerbread house.
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Photo © Stadtkino Filmverleih
