Dahomey
Mati Diop
2024
About Film
26 royal treasures of the Kingdom of Dahomey are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin, the present-day Republic of Benin. Along with thousands of others, these artefacts were plundered by French colonial troops in 1892. Among other voices, the journey is recounted by artefact number 26, a wooden statue of King Ghezo, who ruled Dahomey in the mid-1800s. But what attitude to adopt to these ancestors’ homecoming in a country that had to reinvent itself in their absence? While the soul of the artifacts is freed, their homecoming is debatet among students of the University of Abomey-Calavi.
About Director
Paris based filmmaker and actor Mati Diop directed her first four short films while attending Le Fresnoy and Le Pavillon at Palais de Tokyo. She is the niece of the great Senegalese film director Djibril Diop Mambéty, and made Mille soleils (2013) as a homage to his classic film Touki Bouki. She was also the female lead in Claire Denis’ 2008 film 35 Rhums. Her first feature, Atlantics (2019), winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes, established her as one of the leading figures in international arthouse cinema and of a new wave in African and diasporic cinema. She made several short films, including Big in Vietnam (2011, Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Festival) and Snow Canon (2012), Tokyo Trip (2023) and In My Room (2020). Her second feature film Dahomey (2024) was shot in Benin and won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival.
English (UK) 
Türkçe