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Review: Dahomey

— by BEV QUESTAD —

The return of the treasures, the murmuring of the spirits and the new thinking of the people receiving the restitution make this documentary, in the top fifteen 2025 Oscar list, an eye-opener.

We see an elegant dinner cruise on the electric ripples of the Seine long after sunset. The sophisticated dark Parisian night has reflecting lights and barely audible music coming from the cold water’s elite cargo.

Then we pass through still, barren white walls. Then a room where artifacts are lifted delicately and respectfully into wooden boxes. A cover is slid onto the top and we are in darkness, only hearing the machines staple the lid tight.

Now we are free to talk.

“Dahomey” personifies the relics that were stolen by French colonial troops during the late 1800s and invites us to join in their experience. The caption reads, “130 years of captivity are coming to an end.” How must the throne and the representative figures feel? How do we?

Mati Diop has created a film about the repatriation of sacred treasures back to the Kingdom of Dahomey. Now a part of Benin, Dahomey, existing from 1600-1904, still has a capital, Abomey, alive and bustling.

In the Paris museum, there was a quiet respect with masked faces and gloved hands. The loading onto the airplane was quiet and careful. But upon arrival in sunny Benin, the casket boxes are paraded down the streets to singing and dancing. Precious water is poured onto the entry by two hand-maidens in homage to the return. Maybe 20-25 men lift the boxes up the stairs to the newly prepared museum room for their exhibition.

Diop had two weeks to film the packaging of the artifacts in Paris to their opening at the museum in Benin. The reception in Benin was a joyous welcome home of royalty. A town hall was held for University of Abomey-Calavi students. What were their reactions to the restitution?

Some exasperated students point out that in school they were taught about European culture but never their own. They were also taught in French, not their own language. When they view the newly returned sacred relics they are stunned by the fine workmanship as well as their ignorance of their own history and the role these items played in their heritage.

The stunning carvings take on a new life of energy. The Beninese museum attendees and the university students reassess themselves and their place in the world. They angrily ask why only 26 of the 7,000 sacred items taken were returned.

Mati Diop has roots in Africa. Her father is a Senegalese musician who has lived in France since the 1970s. Her mother is a French photographer and art buyer. Diop won the prestigious Golden Bear for best film at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival for “Dahomey.”

Filmed using creative story-telling and a spiritual sensitivity, Diop pushes the envelope on what a documentary can be.



Credits

Director/Writer: Mati Diop
Image: Josephine Drouin-Viallard
Editor: Gabriel Gonzalez
Voice of the Treasures: Makenzy Orcel
Producers: Eve Robin, Judith Lou Levy, and Mati Diop
Sound: Corneille Houssou, Nicolas Becker, and Cyril Holtz,
Music: Dean Blunt and Wally Badarou
Assistant Director: Gildas Adannou
Released: December 13, 2024
MUBI Website and how to view: https://mubi.com/en/us/films/dahomey

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