Dahomey

Synopsis

November 2021. 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. But what attitude to adopt to these ancestors’ homecoming in a country that had to forge ahead in their absence? The debate rages among students at the University of Abomey-Calavi.

Credits

Crew

Director: Mati Diop
Screenplay: Mati Diop
Cinematography: Josephine Drouin Viallard
Editing: Gabriel Gonzalez
Music: Wally Badarou, Dean Blunt
Sound Design: Nicolas Becker
Sound: Corneille Houssou, Cyril Holtz
Casting: Mati Diop
Producers: Eve Robin, Judith Lou Lévy, Mati Diop
Executive Producer: Christiane Chabi Kao Cotonou
Co-Production: Arte France Cinéma Paris

With

Gildas Adannou
Morias Agbessi
Maryline Agbossi
Habib Ahandessi
Didier Donatien Alihonou

Contact(s)

Les Films du Losange
https://filmsdulosange.com

Mati Diop

Her diverse film work since the 2000s has established the director as a representative of a new wave of African and Afro-diasporic culture. Her feature film Atlantics won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2019. She sees cinema as a tool of reappropriation to restore lost images, question degrading colonial representations and invent new heroes and heroines.

Filmography

2010 Atlantiques, 2011 Snow Canon, 2012 Big in Vietnam, 2013 Mille Soleils, 2019 Atlantique (Atlantics), 2020 In My Room, 2024 Dahomey