Benin, Berlin International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Dahomey, documentaries, film festivals, Malkenzy Orcel, Mati Diop, movies, New York Film Festival, reviews, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival
November 30, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Mati Diop
French with subtitles
Culture Representation: The documentary film “Dahomey,” filmed in 2021 and 2022, features a predominantly African group of people (with some white people) in Africa’s Republic of Benin (formerly known as Dahomey) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: The documentary follows the journey of artifacts that were stolen from Dahomey by French colonials in the 1890s and returned from France to the artifacts’ native homeland n 2021.
Culture Audience: “Dahomey” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in documentaries that take an unusual artistic approach to historical stories affected by colonialism.
“Dahomey” gives a narration voice to African artifacts that were taken by France and returned to their African homeland in 2021. This highly unique and artistic documentary invites viewers to contemplate how the artifacts represent stolen histories and oppressed cultures. It’s the type of documentary that is best appreciated by viewers who are open to watching non-fiction films that don’t follow traditional formats. “Dahomey” is only 68 minutes long, but its slow pacing might make some viewers feel like the movie is much longer than 68 minutes.
Directed by Mati Diop, “Dahomey” had its world premiere at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Golden Bear (the festival’s top prize), which is a rare accomplishment for a documentary. “Dahomey” has since screened at numerous other film festivals in 2024, including the Toronto International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival. “Dahomey” is Senegal’s official entry for Best International Feature Film for the 2025 Academy Awards. “Dahomey” is the first documentary feature directed by Diop, who is known for being a director and actress in fictional feature films.
The African kingdom of Dahomey was under French rule from 1895 to 1960, when Dahomey regained its independence. Dahomey was renamed Benin in 1975. Benin has undergone numerous coups and political upheavals, with constant division over whether or not Benin’s government should be socialist. There are lingering effects of the country’s colonial rule by France: French is Benin’s official language, and Catholicism is the majority religion in Benin.
The beginning of “Dahomey” shows this caption superimposed over footage of a boat in the water: “November 9, 2021: Twenty-six royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey are due to leave Paris, returning to their land of origin, the present-day Republic of Benin. These artifacts were among the thousands looted by French colonial troops during the invasion of 1892. For them, 130 years of captivity are coming to an end.”
“Dahomey” is mostly a cinéma vérité documentary, with no interviews, no animation and no re-enactments with actors. What makes “Dahomey” so unusual is that the collective “voice” of these 26 artifacts is the narration in several parts of the documentary. Diop and Malkenzy Orcel (a Haitian writer who is the narration’s haunting voice) wrote the narration for “Dahomey” as speculation of what these artifacts would say if they could speak during this journey from France to Benin.
The narration expresses an array of emotions, including curiosity, fear, sadness, joy, pride and defiance. An early thought expressed in the narration says during the trip, “I journeyed so long in my mind, but it was so dark in this foreign place that I lost myself in my dreams, becoming one with these walls, cut off from the land of my birth, as if I were dead. There are thousands of us on this night. We all bear the same scars.”
The voice then laments, “They have named me 26. Not 24. Not 30. Just 26. Why don’t they call me by my real name? Don’t they know it?” Later, when boxes of the artifacts are being loaded on an airplane, the narration voice says: “I’m torn between the fear of not being recognized by anyone and not recognizing everything.”
All the people who appear in the documentary are not identified by their names when they appear on screen. Anonymous workers unload the artifacts and inspect the artifacts when they arrive in Benin. An unnamed supervisor clinically lists the physical characteristics of the artifacts during an inspection. Unfortunately, “Dahomey” gives detailed information about only a select number—not all—of the 26 artifacts.
Viewers see that a brown statue of King Ghezo has arrived in “average” condition and is made of painted wood, metal and fibers. The statue weighs about 220 kilograms or 485 pounds. Another striking-looking artifact is a red statue of King Glele, which shows him with a horse’s upper body and a human lower body. This statue is also declared as being in “average condition.” A worker begins to sing when he is tasked with inspecting an ebony statue of King Béhanzin, who was the rule of Dahomey from 1890 to 1894.
The artifacts get a hero’s welcome from bystanders on the streets as the artifacts are transported in vehicles before they are put on display. (The artifacts have been on display at the Benin presidential palace and have gone on an exhibition tour across Benin.) The crowds are clearly not cheering about the real or perceived monetary value of these treasures. They are cheering because the return of these artifacts are about an acknowledgement that French colonials stole a lot of historical culture from this nation, which is now getting some of it back through these artifacts.
But not everyone in Benin is happy about the return of these artifacts. The last half of the documentary shows a civil discussion among students at the University of Abomey-Calavi, where they gather in an assembly room and express differing opinions on the arrival of these artifacts. Some students think that out of the approximately 7,000 known artifacts that were stolen by France, returning only 26 is just a token gesture. Other students think that the 26 artifacts beng returned is a good start to healing some of the damage caused by colonialism.
A female student says that she cried for 15 minutes straight after seeing the artifacts for the first time and is one of the people who think that it’s insulting that only 26 artifacts were returned. Another female student comments that the return of the artifacts has more to do with politics than history. A male student says of France president Emmanuel Macron’s decision to return the artifacts: “Macron didn’t do it because we asked. He did it to boost his brand.”
Later, an African American woman who sees the artifacts on display says that there’s a parallel between the return of these artifacts and the possibility that descendants of enslaved Africans can get reparations. She gives a monologue that has a tone of hope that progress will be made.
“Dahomey” is not interested in taking sides on any political issues. In its own thoughtful and observant ways, “Dahomey” is a documentary that shows how the return of these artifacts have opened up discussions about how national pride and colonialism can affect people in the past, present and future. “Dahomey” is not a story about inanimate objects. It’s a story about living history.
MUBI released “Dahomey” in select U.S. cinemas on October 25, 2024.