Koffi Musoso (Marc Zinga) is his family’s eldest, prodigal son, living in Brussels with his wife Alice (Lucie Debay). For a dowry ceremony, he returns to Kinshasa to his mother Mujila (Yves-Marina Gnahoua), who doesn’t welcome their visit. Things get worse when his nosebleeds act up, the blood – mark of the devil – ending up on his baby nephew. He now has to go through a ritual that may be, as Koffi says in English, just ‘bullshit’. He has to endure this while away from the only family member who understands him, his sister Tshala (Eliane Umuhire). And all of this may involve Paco (Marcel Otete Kabeya), a street fighter and leader of a queer gang.

Baloji, the director and writer of Omen, uses the character above to show the amphibious nature of racialized peoples. Some people, racialized or white, may not be comfortable with what this film says but its message still feels true. As racialized people, we feel whole, but living under the spectre of two cultures of ‘home’ and the West. On the one hand, there are beliefs and rituals that we don’t ‘believe’ and can never explain to others. On the other hand, it doesn’t matter whether or not Koffi is in Brussels or Kinshasa, Western performativity still exists. Tshala, for instance, can still have dinner parties for Koffi and Alice, showing that racialized people have internalised Westernization.

Family drama is the root genre of Omen, where characters like Koffi and Tshala air out the trauma that separates them. The film hits on things specific to culture in the DRC but obviously it hits on things that are universal. It’s up to the younger generation to let go of the baggage that the older generations pass on down. But as films like this go, not everything is serious here, as it incorporates, subtly, scenes that feel surreal. Tshala gets a knock on the door from people that happen to be door to door salesmen working for Alibaba. One can write a whole paragraph on how some Africans use traditional costumes and songs to promote outside capitalism.

Omen, upon first glance, shows forces in opposition, the African and the white, the old and the young. Other critics see them more as complementary forces, which is arguable, but it shows its opposites with more nuance. Viewers can see this when the film finally shows that Koffi and Paco have more in common than seizures. It also shows this during the film’s final act, as it also reveals Koffi’s commonalities with the disapproving Mujila. The people around her have a weird way of mourning her husband’s death, like street vendors breaking out into song. But it also shows her in-laws emptying her place out, a prodigal wife, just like the son she loves.

Watch Omen on MUBI.