Wed, May 1 at 8:00pm: Introduction from Alexis Finet, assistant professor of the practice of French at Vanderbilt University | BUY TICKETS
Following Koffi’s return to his birthplace after he has been ostracized by his family, OMEN explores the weight of beliefs on one’s destiny through four characters accused of being witches and sorcerers — all of them intertwined and guiding each other into the phantasmagoria of Africa. An exquisitely crafted and visually inventive contemporary tale of superstition, alienation and tradition from Congolese Belgian rapper-turned-filmmaker Baloji.
“You won’t see any other film so unique and different this year… With multiple storylines and characters, OMEN introduces a different kind of storytelling than Western filmmaking… A truly unique experience to be had. Using the magical realism and symbolism steeped in tradition old and new, the film is a kaleidoscopic picture of bustling Africa that is here and now.” —Dustin Chang, Screen Anarchy “Brought to life with dazzling, dizzying costumes, the film’s magic realism aspects and affection for the fantastic lend the story an emotional connective tissue that binds its seemingly disparate stories together… OMENis a remarkable accomplishment and a thrilling glimpse into the work of a truly visionary filmmaker who no doubt has many more films to come.” —Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) “OMEN announces its writer-director as an artist of significant formal imagination and daring, unafraid to put standard narrative legibility at risk in favor of intuitive sensory suggestion… OMEN plainly regards folk tradition — in all its seductive mystery, here illustrated in lush fantasy sequences marked by fuchsia-hued smoke and burning desert scarecrows — as a generational burden, inspiring as much prejudice as it does a sense of belonging.” —Guy Lodge, Variety
