Dahomey

In 1892, hundreds of art objects from the West African kingdom of Dahomey were looted by French colonial troops and taken to the “mother country”. In 2021, 26 of these displaced royal artifacts were returned to the Republic of Benin, within which Dahomey had been located. It was a key moment in the troubled post-colonial timeline.

In this hybrid documentary, French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop—who won a Golden Bear for this film—imaginatively builds a bridge between past, present and future. The meticulous transportation of the wooden statue of Dahomey’s former ruler King Ghezo is recorded without comment, but the filmmaker does give a voice to the king himself, who reflects on his return in a poetic and enchanting voice-over.

A debate among students from the University of Abomey-Calavi brings the documentary back to present-day reality. Their gaze is fixed on the future, as they discuss their country’s museum policy, and how future generations throughout society can be reunited with the art of their ancestors.