Dahomey is a 2024documentary film directed byMati Diop. It is a dramatised account of 26 royal treasures from theKingdom of Dahomey (in modern-day Benin), which were held in a museum in France. The film explores how the artifacts were returned from France to Benin, and the reactions of Beninese people.[4] The film was an international co-production between companies in France, Senegal, and Benin.[5]
The documentary film blends facts and fiction to narrate the stories of 26 African artworks.[4] The royal artefacts from theKingdom of Dahomey (1600–1904) were taken to France duringthe region's colonial period (1872–1960). In the 21st century, they were put on display in theMusée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, a museum of non-European art located in Paris. Following a campaign forrepatriation, the artefacts were returned to Benin.
Among the returned works were statues of two kings of Dahomey,Glele andBéhanzin. Their throne, which had been seized by French soldiers in 1892, was also given back.[13] The art pieces are now displayed in a museum inAbomey, the old royal city, about 65 miles from theGulf of Guinea.[14]
The film includes a discussion by students at theUniversity of Abomey-Calavi, presenting their views on the repatriation of cultural assets. Some of the students criticise the Paris museum for returning only 26 of the 7,000 worldwideethnographic objects it holds.[15]
A prominent role in the film is given to the 26th art object to be repatriated, a statue that representsKing Ghézo, who ruled from 1818 to 1859, shown below. Avoice-over by the Haitian writerMakenzy Orcel [fr;ht] (who wrote this part of the script), playing the object, tells of the time it spent in storage at the Paris museum, its memories of Africa and thoughts of returning to its homeland.
The Kingdom of Dahomey around 1894, superimposed on a map of the modern-day Republic of Benin, in the region of West Africa.
Three royal sculptures in the Quai Branly museum in May 2021 before their restitution
Statue ofKing Ghézo (art object number 26) at the Quai Branly Museum
In January 2024, Paris-basedLes Films du Losange acquired the sales rights.[20] That February,Mubi acquired the distribution rights to the film for North America, Latin America, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey and India from Les Films du Losange and plans to release the film in late 2024.[21] It opened the 46thCinéma du Réel Festival that took place from 22 to 31 March 2024 in Paris.[22]
On the review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes website, the film has an approval rating of 99% based on 81 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "With a rigorous yet fantastical approach, Mati Diop'sDahomey provocatively uncovers the restitution and repatriation of a stolen legacy, and serves as a powerful statement for decolonization."[35] OnMetacritic, it has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100 based on 23 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[36]
On theAlloCiné, which lists 27 press reviews, the film obtained an average rating of 4.1/5.[37]
David Rooney reviewing the film forThe Hollywood Reporter described it as "Richly layered and resonant", and opined: "This directorial flourish liberates the looted treasures from being mere objects, with smart use of subjective camera by DP Joséphine Drouin-Viallard helping to make them come alive as characters."[38]
E. Nina Rothe, writing for theInternational Cinephile Society, noted that the film "is important, with its message crucial to restitution providing the beginning of righting the wrongs of colonialism".[39]
Wendy Ide wrote inScreenDaily while reviewing the film at Berlinale, "In this agile, cerebral film, using a combination of deft fly-on-the-wall footage, a centrepiece debate among students at the University of Abomey-Calavi and an unexpected element of fantasy, the film feels like an important contribution to an ongoing conversation about the legacy of colonialism in Africa, and to the thorny topic of restitution and repatriation of cultural heritage to the country of its origin."[40]
Jessica Kiang, writing inVariety in her review of Berlinale, said: "French-Senegalese director Mati Diop fashions her superb, short but potent hybrid docDahomey as a slim lever that cracks open the sealed crate of colonial history, sending a hundred of its associated erasures and injustices tumbling into the light." Kiang concluded: "Dahomey is a striking, stirring example of the poetry that can result when the dead and the dispossessed speak to and through the living."[16]
Stephanie Bunbury, in her review at Berlinale forDeadline said: "Open-ended, fecund with imagination and ideas, never hectoring or lecturing, not so much posing questions as asking what questions might be posed: Mati Diop's film is a marvelous provocation."[15]
Adam Solomons ofIndieWire, reviewing at Berlinale, graded the film B and criticised the runtime of the film, he opined: "Dahomey might have worked better at a runtime of [closer to 30 minutes]: the student debate, though well staged, becomes a bit repetitive, and some of the shots of boxes being loaded and unloaded go at a snail's pace." Concluding Solomons praised the directorMati Diop and wrote: "Dahomey is a bold and memorable history lesson. But with Diop's expressive talents as they are, it's fair to hope that she returns to the world of fiction next time."[41]
Writing forRogerEbert.com, Robert Daniels praised "inventive" Diop's "distinct approach to the seemingly straightforward topic", highlighting the film's "dreamlike score", and saying thatDahomey "fills and nourishes the viewer with urgent desires, providing space for the light that constitutes the souls of Black folk to shine brighter through repair. Diop is back, and she is just as searing and imperative as ever."[42]
Reviewing inLe Polyester, Nicolas Bardot gave the film a 5/6 rating, and stated: "Mati Diop ambitiously mixes the political and the poetic. Her stories always project further than the facts apparent before our eyes." Concluding, Bardot opined: "InDahomey, it is not only the present that the past finds, but also the future."[43]
Nicholas Bell in Ion Cinema rated the film with three and half stars and opened his review stating, "The spirit ofOzymandias, the classic poem fromPercy Bysshe Shelley, might rouse itself in one's mind during Mati Diop's short but passionate documentaryDahomey – "Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"" Thus Bell opined, "[the film] is a depiction of a journey with so much more going on beneath the surface than an exchange of cultural artifacts." Concluding his review, Bell said: "Much like her 2019 narrative debut,Atlantics, Diop proves to be exceptionally adept at coalescing textures and strands in remarkably dense ways, andDahomey is an excellent point of entry in an ongoing conversation."[44]
Peter Bradshaw reviewing forThe Guardian rated the film with four stars out of five and wrote, "It is an invigorating and enlivening film, with obvious implications for the Elgin/Parthenon marbles in the British Museum."[45]
Shubhra Gupta, reviewing forThe Indian Express, wrote that the film using a unique documentary approach laced with fantasy "powerfully challenges post-colonial notions of reparations and repair", and that the film is "A question that deserves our attention, and the answers that emerge from it..."[46]
Dahomey was selected to compete at the74th Berlin International Film Festival, where it was awarded theGolden Bear award for the best film. It is the second African film to win the top prize at the festival, followingMark Dornford-May's South African drama filmU-Carmen eKhayelitsha in 2015.Dahomey was the second documentary in a row to take the Golden Bear, afterNicolas Philibert'sOn the Adamant in 2023. During her acceptance speech, Diop called for people "to tear down the wall of silence together" and "to rebuild through restitution", which entails "bringing justice".[47]
^Bardot, Nicolas (18 February 2024)."Berlinale | Critique: Dahomey" [Berlinale | Review: Dahomey].Le Polyester (in French). WordPress.Archived from the original on 24 February 2024. Retrieved25 February 2024.
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