By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Mati Diop
Year: 2024
Running time: 68
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31015216
Laks says: “The former British Prime Minister had caused international scandal when he blew off the Greeks on discussing the restitution of the Parthenon sculptures and the establishment echoed the same tired colonial nonsense as it does to all nations, that they are capable of preserving their own cultural artefacts. Imagine the embarrassment then when an enormous expose erupted just a few months later when reporting on a higher up at the British Museum were auctioning off artefacts like they were trinkets on eBay. Yes! eBay!
“On that very February, Mati Diop was awarded the Golden Bear for her groundbreaking film Dahomey. The film starts with an disembodied voice, a voice of a god, talking from the perspective of one artefact, one of the 26 artifacts that France repatriated back to Benin in 2021. Starting rather mystically in a calm somewhat mythical domain, the film gradually brings the audience to land in Benin to encounter the processes, the leaders, the everyday people and ending with University students debating all corners stemming from the restitution, including the oppression of colonialism, the loss of culture, the loss of indigenous languages, the meagre return of 26 out of 7000 recorded looted artefacts. Radical questions were put forward, one that struck me the most of the role of a Museum to house artefacts that were looted from those nations. The artefacts were living breathing part of everyday life before they were plundered. An important film for everyone and will appeal to those interested in the life of artefacts, history, ancient cultures and for those who simply delight in an afternoon in the museum like I do. – 4.5 Cats
“The voice of the artifact reminded me of the voice of the ghost of the hippo that was kidnapped from South Africa and brought to Pablo Escobar’s menagerie in Pepe (4 Cats).”
Dahomey