Omen | Baloji

[BluBonnet]

‘Omen’ Director Baloji on Telling Stories From an African Perspective

“My name, Baloji, means ‘sorcerer’ in Swahili, which is a difficult name to live with. It’s like being an American named ‘devil.’ It’s like getting assigned something at birth. All my life dealing with the assignment of my name.”

Baloji laughs. He’s at home in Belgium, talking via Zoom about his long journey to make Omen, his feature debut as a director. The drama, which premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar, winning the new voice prize for best first feature, draws on Baloji’s personal experiences as a Congolese-born, European-raised artist with complicated feelings towards the cultures of both his birth and adopted homelands. The plot follows Koffi (Marc Zinga), a young Congolese man living in Europe with his white fiancée Alice (Lucie Debay) who travels to Congo in an effort to mend his relationship with his family, particularly his mother Mujila (Yves-Marina Gnahoua). His mum sent him to Europe shortly after his birth, labeling him a sorcerer because of an odd-shaped birthmark.

Baloji, who moved to Belgium with his father when he was a child, had also lost contact with his birthmother. As a teenager, he founded the pioneering Belgium hip-hop group Starflam and released several hit albums before leaving the band in the mid-2000s. His return to music, as a solo artist, was triggered by his re-reading a letter from his mother, written in 1981, after he had left for Europe. Much of his work since, including Omen, can be seen as a response to that letter. His attempt to talk back to his family and history.

Omen tells the story of four people, each accused of witchcraft and ostracised from their communities, who struggle to find a way back. Stylistically, Baloji embraces the Congolese tradition of witchcraft and sorcery in its magically-realist approach to storytelling and visual style. But above all the film, which is screening in the Horizons section of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival this week, is a story of the struggle for identity and community.