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Omen

Submissions for Best International Feature (Academy Awards 2024)

Augure

2023

Baloji

Marc Zinga, Lucie Debay, Eliane Umuhire, Yves-Marina Gnahoua

5.9

Drama After spending years in Belgium, a young Congolese man returns to his birthplace of Kinshasa to confront the intricacies of his family and culture.

	Media	Author	Review
		Arjun Sajip IndieWire	"A visually striking, deeply compassionate, and memorable debut"
		Guy Lodge Variety	"Arresting Belgian-Congolese debut (...) This distinctive vision from rapper-turned-filmmaker Baloji fills the ellipses in its narrative with abundant sensory rewards"
		Lovia Gyarkye The Hollywood Reporter	"An artful and intriguing take on the African diasporic experience"
		William Repass Slant	"The patchwork structure is suited to the complexity [this] setting. Yet it's hard to shake that there are too many threads for a film of this length to do them justice (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"
		Tim Grierson Screendaily	"As the film reaches its conclusion, he and cinematographer Joaquim Philippe conjure up some suitably bewitching imagery that gives the story a mystical dimension"
		Beatrice Loayza The New York Times	"The film's frenetic world-building eventually becomes numbing, in part because the uneven human dramas lose momentum in all the commotion"
		Dustin Chang Screen Anarchy	"You won’t see any other film so unique and different this year"
		Peyton Robinson rogerebert.com	"It is a visually enthralling piece of magical realism (...) But in devoting so much work to the aesthetic, it falls behind in making sense of its phantasmagoric storylines (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		S. Nicole Lane Chicago Reader	"Mixing folklore and tradition, the film carries us through the damage of being misunderstood with breathtaking scenes that leave us afraid and mesmerized"
		Ethan Vestby The Film Stage	"An assured debut that never falters in ambition or surprise"
		Nick Schager The Daily Beast	"Makes up for any narrative patchiness with a bevy of unforgettable images and an attendant sense of ancient beliefs and rituals that divide as much as they unite"
		Rory Doherty Dread Central	"A visual feast that offers a new look at grief and witchcraft (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"It is bold, risky, exciting film-making (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Aurore Engelen Cineuropa	"Baloji delivers a dizzying and visually intoxicating first feature film about the intertwined fates of four banished souls in an ultra-modern African world"

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