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In Dahomey, Mati Diop Gives the Past a Lyrical Voice
The new nontraditional documentary from the director of Atlantics looks at the restoration of 26 plundered artworks to Benin.
Dahomey has bigger concerns, too, which make it a headier and more abstract work to contend with, even as Diop shows off her ability to find poetry in the faces of the people, first workers, then grandees, then members of the public, who come to see the artworks in their new-old home. There’s talk about the repatriation as a gesture meant to boost the image of France, or as a political act on the part of Beninese president Patrice Talon, who, as one student points out, is the descendant of interpreters who helped allow the thefts to happen in the first place. 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.
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