Dahomey (2024)

In 2021, 26 Benin royal artefacts, looted from the Kingdom of Dahomey by French colonisers, were returned to the country after more than a century in European museums. Sculptures, thrones, and sacred treasures were carefully packed and shipped from Paris to Cotonou. But their return was not a simple diplomatic gesture. The artefacts were not just objects of the past; they are alive. Through the eyes of these culturally significant works, we are confronted with the question: Can restitution heal the centuries of erasure? Makenzy Orcel’s narration, a haunting imagining of an artefact, takes viewers inside a historical moment of restitution. Director Mati Diop invites us to reflect on the deeper tensions between past and present, tradition and modernity. What happens when sacred objects re-enter a modern society that has evolved and is no longer the same? Dahomey’s bold fusion of documentary realism and spiritual storytelling – with an emphasis on sound design – challenges how we see history, and how history sees us. Diop made history as the first Black woman filmmaker to win the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlinale. She was also the first Black woman to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival with her debut feature Atlantics (2019), winning the prestigious Grand Prix and was similarly Oscar-shortlisted.