MATI DIOP | FRANCE, SENEGAL, BENIN | 2024 | 67 MIN | FRENCH, FON, ENGLISH
Winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Mati Diop’s unconventional documentary tracks the repatriation of 26 treasured artifacts that were looted from the West African Kingdom of Dahomey in 1892. The film follows the objects on each step of their trek, from the basement of a Paris museum to their proud new places of prominence in what is now the Republic of Benin. Diop lends these sequences a dreamlike quality, employing voiceover to imagine the objects’ internal monologues. In other sequences, she simply observes Beninese students as they fiercely debate the meaning of the return. While some students view the homecoming as a cause for celebration, others see only a token gesture by a former colonizer, which does little to repair generations of violent cultural erasure. After making a splash with her feature debut Atlantics (PFF28), Diop shifts gears to nonfiction while retaining a distinctively lyrical yet socially conscious signature. Making the most of its economical runtime, Dahomey is an intellectually rich and aesthetically adventurous tour de force by one of the most exciting filmmakers working today.
All sales are final. Admission is not guaranteed after scheduled start time.
Click HERE for more information about the 33rd Philadelphia Film Festival