DAHOMEY

(The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5-15 and HtN has you covered once again. Check out Chris Reed’s Dahomey movie review. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)

Director Mati Diop (Atlantics) turns her talents to the documentary realm in Dahomey, in which she follows the return of 26 artworks from France to Benin (within whose borders the former Kingdom of Dahomey was once located). These are just a few of the 7000 or so such objects—many of them royal treasures—that were stolen after the French invasion in 1892. As with all colonial powers, France just took what it wanted and brought it back to its museums for display. The time is long past for these pieces to go back where they came from.

By far the most fascinating aspect of this short (68 minutes) feature, which won the Golden Bear (top prize) at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival (or Berlinale), is the lively public debate, within Benin, that takes up much of the movie’s second half. The Beninois have a great variety of opinions about the returning objects, as well as about the legacy of colonialism and the challenges of rediscovering their native culture under the current Francophone system that remains. Their back and forth in the academic conference captured by Diop is the heart and soul of the picture.

Before we get there, however, Diop opens in Paris with a series of observational scenes shot in the city. One such sequence centers on a group of mini–Eiffel Towers for sale, with flashing lights that make them pop at night. Though these are but facsimiles of the real thing, they, too, are a kind of objet d’art taken from the source and transported someplace else. The Eiffel Tower, built for the World Exhibition of 1889, is also a symbol of France’s cultural and imperial might at the time of its subjugation of Dahomey.

Diop then takes us inside the warehouse where the soon-to-be-returned statues and artworks are being packed in boxes. One such statue narrates the process in a distorted voice, lamenting that he is reduced to a mere number (26), denied his original name. As the lid on his temporary sarcophagus closes, the image cuts to black. Upon arrival in Benin, not only will he once more see the light, but regain his name.

But is the repatriation of this small selection of artifacts enough? Will they be able to reclaim their rightful place in Benin’s cultural patrimony? Should they even be publicly displayed in a museum, which some modern Beninois believe is an externally imposed Western institution? Why is France doing this? What do they hope to gain? Some of these objects are religious in nature. Is it blasphemous to stage them for public view behind glass cases?

It is these questions, beyond anything else, that hold our attention. Listening to the sharp discussion, each speaker articulating yet another point of view to consider, is not only intellectually stimulating, but heartwarming. Many of those involved are young, proving that though Dahomey’s past may be fraught, Benin’s future looks bright. At least within Dahomey, that is the true gift of the returned artworks. Welcome home.

– Christopher Llewellyn Reed (@ChrisReedFilm)

Toronto International Film Festival; Dahomey;Mati Diop

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