22nd Calgary Underground Film Festival

April 17-27, 2025

13th CUFF.Docs Documentary Film Festival

November 19-23, 2025

Omen

Belgium, Netherlands, Congo, 2023: 90 minutes: Canadian Premiere
Archives 2024
Omen_still_1
Globe Cinema
Mon, Apr 22 9:15 PM Buy

description

After spending years in Belgium, a young Congolese man returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa to confront the intricacies of his family and 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,” OMEN delves into the intricacies of identity, culture, and belief systems through a deeply rich and visually captivating lens. The Cannes Award Winning Film 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.

OFFICIAL SELECTION
Cannes Un Certain Regard 2023
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2023
Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival 2023
Philadelphia Film Festival 2023
Göteborg Film Festival 2024

DIRECTOR'S BIO
Born in 1978 in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, and based in Belgium, Baloji is an award-winning musician, filmmaker, polymath, art director, and costume designer. OMEN is Baloji’s first feature film, following several well-received short films that have been distributed worldwide, including ZOMBIES (2019). As a musician, Baloji has released two critically acclaimed albums and two EPs. The latest, "Avenue Kaniama", was released on Bella Union Records (Father John Mistry, Fleet Foxes).

press for Omen

"Baloji’s striking drama … suggests a bright future for a filmmaker with an appreciation for atmosphere and character."
- Screen Daily
"An intriguingly ambivalent reckoning with Baloji’s mother country, a genre-hopping, beautifully slippery exploration of Congolese belief systems and their relation to patriarchally inflicted traumas."
- IndieWire

details

Drama / First Feature / Narrative

Swahili | English Subtitles
90 minutes

credits

Director
Baloji

Producer
Benoit Roland

Screenwriter
Baloji

Cinematographer
Joachim Philippe

Cast
Marc Zinga
Lucie Debay
Eliane Umuhire
Yves-Marina Gnahoua
Marcel Otete Kabeya

Official website:
https://omen.film/

community

awards