With a rigorous yet fantastical approach, filmmaker Mati Diop provocatively uncovers the restitution and repatriation of a stolen legacy. Q&A to follow.
Dahomey immerses us in a colonial crime—the theft of 7,000 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey by the French in 1892—and the efforts to have them returned to their native Benin. This innovative, exhilarating documentary offers various points of view on the crime, its aftermath, and the future of these and other plundered objects. We hear from the artworks themselves and from the activists who strove for their return as they celebrate their victory and strategize about a path forward. [68 min; documentary; English, French, and Fon with English subtitles]
A Q&A will follow the screening.
"Mati Diop elevates simplicity to a masterpiece with an almost dreamlike documentary that tells the story of an exercise in reparation that is also an exercise in affirmation and recognition of guilt." — Luis Martínez, El Mundo
"Reaches deep into the unsettled soul of a generation seeking not only justice for the past, but a chance to create a future in their own image." — Mattie Lucas, trans|cendental cinema
"A welcome companion to the rich textures and spirits of Diop’s lauded feature film, Atlantics, Dahomey offers itself as a site of essential reflection and a necessary reminder of the living poetics that cinema is capable of." — Sarah-Tai Black, Globe and Mail
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