In 1892, French colonial troops plundered thousands of cultural artifacts from the Kingdom of Dahomey. In 2021, 26 of them returned to the Republic of Benin. Their journey is narrated by the statue of King Ghezo in an oneiric, lyrical monologue. While these traditional treasures are initially received with reverential pomp and circumstance, students at the University of Abomey-Calavi vigorously debate the political motivations of the restitution while discussing ongoing issues of self-determination, education, and recovering their culture’s stolen soul.
Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, Mati Diop’s first feature since her 2019 debut Atlantics is one of the year’s most innovative and profound documentaries. Infusing its historical and cultural subjects with a dreamlike atmosphere and blending reality with the fantastical, Dahomey is transformed by the interplay between the metaphysical perspective of the stolen artifacts and the incendiary insights of the students’ debate, providing a poetic scaffolding for the film to envision a new postcolonial horizon.
Golden Bear for Best Film, Berlin 2024
Gildas Adannou, Habib Ahandessi, Joséa Guedje
France/Senegal/Benin
2024
In French, Fon and English with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Christiane Chabi Kao
Producer
Eve Robin, Judith Lou Lévy, Mati Diop
Screenwriter
Mati Diop
Cinematography
Josephine Drouin Viallard
Editor
Gabriel Gonzalez
Original Music
Wally Badarou, Dean Blunt
Mati Diop
Mati Diop, born in Paris in 1982, has garnered acclaim for her eclectic body of work since the early 2000s. Her feature film Atlantics (2019), which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, established her as a leading figure in international arthouse cinema and of a new wave in African and diasporic cinema. Raised in a Franco-Senegalese family with a musician father and a photographer and art buyer mother, Diop’s films, including Atlantiques (2009) and Mille Soleils (2013), explore themes of migration, colonialism, and African identity. Her second feature, Dahomey (2024), continues her focus on artistic activism in Africa.
Filmography: Atlantique (2019)
Photo by Henry Roy
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Mixing documentary and reenactment, this film powerfully evokes the desperate attempts of the Red Crescent to rescue a six year old child trapped in a car under Israeli military fire. Oscar nominee: Best International Film
The Chronology of Water
Kristen Stewart's fearless directorial debut is based on the best-selling memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch (Imogen Poots), a chronicle of her abusive childhood, traumatized adulthood, and escapes through swimming, drugs, sex, and ultimately writing.
Montreal, ma belle
In this Valentine to discovering love later in life, the ever-elegant Joan Chen plays Feng Xia, a 53-year-old Chinese immigrant and mother in Montreal whose world is turned upside down when she meets and falls in love with a young Quebecoise.
Spring After Spring
Three daughters strive to live up to the standards set by their mother Marie Mimi Ho, and keep Vancouver Chinatown's Spring Parade going through thick and thin, in this enormously affectionate local documentary by Jon Chiang.