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In Theaters Now
- 2024
- MUBI
- 1 h 8 m
- 2024
- MUBI
- 1 h 8 m
Summary The journey of 26 plundered royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey exhibited in Paris, now being returned to Benin. Diop artistically voices a new generation's demands.
Directed By: Mati Diop
Written By: Mati Diop, Malkenzy Orcel
In Theaters Now
- 2024
- MUBI
- 1 h 8 m
- 2024
- MUBI
- 1 h 8 m
Dahomey
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Summary The journey of 26 plundered royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey exhibited in Paris, now being returned to Benin. Diop artistically voices a new generation's demands.
Directed By: Mati Diop
Written By: Mati Diop, Malkenzy Orcel
Where to Watch
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 23 Critic Reviews
85
100% Positive
23 Reviews
23 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 23 Critic Reviews
85
100% Positive
23 Reviews
23 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Diop’s latest documentary film is a poetic witnessing of the contradictions, mediations and politics of cultural restitution.
If the rest of the film takes a somber, poetic perspective on the symbolic and literal nature of this partial restoration of a lost heritage, its youth represents a bold, discordant, and exciting counterpoint — vital and engaged, looking toward a future they demand be better than the past.
Diop folds the poetic into the political, without ever becoming didactic.
Mati Diop’s captivating, fabulistic documentary Dahomey confronts the reality of how modernity has been shaped by the West’s theft of cultural heritage.
The cool, often static shots and unhurried editing are characteristic of a school of documentary film-making that allows the viewer complete freedom to shuffle significances. There is a beauty in the empty precision.
[An] agile, cerebral film.
Dahomey may not be for everyone. Unless you’re a history nut or anthropologist, there will be lulls when you find your concentration lagging. However, at a runtime of just over an hour, Diop makes every shot count and packs centuries of history, injustice, and triumph into a dense but vivid documentary.
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Production Company
Les Films du Bal,
Fanta Sy,
Arte France Cinéma,
République Du Bénin,
Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC),
La Région Île-de-France,
Arte France,
Fonds de Promotion de l'Industrie Cinématographique et Audiovisuelle du Sénégal (FOPICA)
Release Date Oct 25, 2024
Duration 1 h 8 m
Genres
Awards
Berlin International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
ZagrebDox
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards
• 2 Nominations