The screening of Augure that I attended was originally supposed to include a Q&A with director Baloji, which was cancelled because he was ultimately unavailable. This was unfortunate, since I found myself to be feeling particularly unsatisfied when the end credits started to roll. I reckon it could have been very interesting to hear the director talk about his film, to shed some light on some of the choices he made in its realization.
The film begins with a dream sequence, featuring a mystical figure roaming the desert and plenty of surreal imagery. I feel like I'm watching The Holy Mountain and I get excited, because this is what I was hoping to see. Based on what I had read about Augure (and on that opening scene), I was expecting a Jodorowsky-like riff on African folklore and mysticism, an intoxicating blend of surreal tableaus and visual symbolism. There are definitely some inspired dream sequences (like that prologue), which actually did really remind me specifically of Alejandro Jodorowsky's work (the mysticism, symbolism and colorful surrealism), but in spite of this I ultimately found the film to be disappointingly bound to reality by its frustrating allegiance to a conventional narrative style with a clear central plot (and even a clear B-plot).
I guess this is my main frustration with Augure: every time it dips its toe into the realm of the fantastic or the surreal, it's completely compelling, but those dream sequences are too few and far between and as a result, the already limited narrative threads that bind them are spread very thin. The film feels somehow too prosaic, whereas its real strength lies in Baloji's talent for visual poetry, especially given the subject matter that lends itself to this more unconventional way of storytelling (the cultural clash between traditional folklore/mysticism and rational modernism). It's almost like Baloji wanted to tell his story in his own original and visually rich style, but also did not want to scare away mainstream audiences too much by abandoning conventional narrative style.
When the title eventually appears on screen and the film is suddenly over, I'm taken quite aback, my reaction being more of a shrug ("was that it?") than that excited mixture of elation and bewilderment after just having witnessed something completely unique and original ("holy smokes, what did I just watch!?").
As I'm writing this, I'm starting to feel like this review may seem a bit harsh, but that is only because I had such high hopes for this film and effectively did see some glimpses of potential greatness from a talented new filmmaker with an own unique voice. There is definitely a lot of promise in Augure, so I'll be excited to see what Baloji does next. I hope he compromises even less and goes all-in on his creative strengths.
