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Dahomey is a 2024 documentary film directed by French-Senegalese filmmaker, Mati Diop and winner of the 2024 Golden Bear Award, the highest prize awarded at the Berlin International Film Festival. It was also nominated for the Berlinale Documentary Film Award. An international co-production (France, Senegal and Benin) the film explores the return of 26 royal treasures of the Kingdom of Dahomey to present-day Benin. The artifacts were looted during French colonial rule and were previously on display in a Parisian museum before being repatriated.
The film uses a blend of fact and fiction to tell the story and emphasizes the symbolic value of the artifacts to the Kingdom of Dahomey. The film includes a discussion by students at the University of Abomey-Calavi, presenting their views on the repatriation of cultural assets. Some of the students criticize the Paris museum for returning only 26 of the 7,000 worldwide ethnographic objects it holds.
In her acceptance speech Diop said “To rebuild we must first restore, and to restitute we must do justice..We are among those who refuse to forget”. The film is scheduled for theatrical release in France on 25 September 2024..
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