In 2019, French filmmaker Mati Diop won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival for her feature debut Atlantics, a haunting and stylistic ghost story. Her follow-up project, the Golden Bear-winning documentary Dahomey, tells a different kind of ghost story; one that is rooted in history and culture.
Dahomey follows the homecoming journey of twenty-six royal treasures from the ancient Kingdom of Dahomey. After being stolen by French colonial troops in 1982, these artefacts were taken overseas and displayed in Parisian museums. The year is now 2021, and the treasures are finally being returned to their home, which is now the present-day Republic of Benin. While twenty-six make it back, thousands still remain in Western hands. Their arrival and public display in Benin sparks an important debate about their significance in the modern world, the colonisation and erasure of history in the country, and further artefact repatriation.
Dahomey is a case where the subject matter of the film is more interesting than the execution itself. However, that isn’t to say that the execution isn’t impressive or unique. It is clear Diop hasn’t set out to make a typical documentary film. Instead of endless interviews, B-roll footage and other documentary conventions, she opts for a more artistic and metaphorical approach to her nonfiction subject. One of the most interesting aspects of the film is the use of atmospheric voiceover from the perspective of the artefacts themselves; a number of them statues of Dahomey kings. They poetically grapple with their previous absence and current situation. With the addition of moody music and sound design, Diop effectively creates an otherworldly presence that lingers within each frame.
The first half of Dahomey tends to drag out, with lots of drawn-out shots of objects being packed and unpacked in mundane fashion. Things pick up once the artefacts are put on display in Benin, and the focus shifts to a heated debate between students at the University of Abomey-Calavi. Is the return of twenty-six historical artefacts a win for Benin, or is it merely a scrap when thousands of others still remain overseas? The conversation is full of different perspectives, with students both embracing and rejecting the idea of repatriation. It makes for a highly thought-provoking and engaging watch.
Despite a short runtime of sixty-eight minutes, it still feels like Dahomey is spread quite thin. Diop’s documentary feels like the kind of project that would have worked better as a TV episode or short of some sort. One could even imagine it playing as a video installation to accompany the artefacts on display when going to see them in person. With a little more meat, context and exposition, the feature length format would have been better justified. Despite its somewhat underwhelming presentation, the film still succeeds in highlighting the importance of colonised countries reclaiming their history and heritage.
