Cold Open · Essay · dec 10, 2024

Mati Diop on Dahomey (2024)

When 26 royal treasures stolen from the Kingdom of Dahomey were finally returned from France, filmmaker Mati Diop was given rare access to document the moment. Dahomey does something more radical than chronicle a repatriation: it imagines the voices of the objects themselves, asking what it means for history to come home. The film won the Golden Bear at Berlin. Speaking with Elliot, Diop discusses what it meant to be entrusted with this story and why the ceremony of return raises as many questions as it settles.

By Admin

Film Journalist · Celebrating Cinema

When 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey (modern-day Republic of Benin) would finally be returned from France, filmmaker Mati Diop was granted rare access to document this historic moment. Dahomey, Diop’s deeply moving and thought-provoking documentary, is the result of that access—a cinematic meditation that not only chronicles the repatriation of these artefacts but also imagines the voices of the objects themselves while focusing on the emotional responses of the Beninese people.

Building on the genre-defying spirit of her debut Atlantiques, Diop uses this personal and collective journey as a lens to explore the themes of return, restitution, and memory. Again weaving together fiction and reality in search of deeper truths. In conversation with host Elliot, Diop reflects on the making of Dahomey, the cultural significance of the treasures’ homecoming, and the profound, ongoing relationship between history, identity, and filmmaking.

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