AUGURE

Koffi (Marc Zinga) returns to Kinshasa after years in Belgium, with his pregnant partner Alice, a white Belgian woman, at his side. He wants to visit his family – the same family that rejected him in his youth because they thought him a “Zabolo”, a sorcerer. The rituals and superstition he fled catch up with him. Baloji tells the story in chapters, named after four characters who are all accused of witchcraft: Koffi, Paco, Tshala and Mama Mujila. “Augure” by Baloji, a film from the Congo and Belgium from 2023, follows four people who have been assigned a fate they did not choose – and who lead one another out of it.

The Belgian-Congolese director Baloji makes his feature debut with “Augure”, co-produced by Belgium, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Netherlands, France and South Africa. The film works with strong colours and images that tip into the magical – a phantasmagoria of Africa, as the Cannes catalogue put it. It premiered in 2023 in Un Certain Regard in Cannes, where it won the Prix de la Nouvelle Voix; Belgium submitted the film for the Oscars, alongside several Magritte Awards. It was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2023 in the Berlinale World Cinema Fund section.

Shown at the 2023 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2023 · Film Archive