Dahomey

November 2021, Benin. 26 cultural artifacts are returned from a French museum, sparking a debate about what this action means. Is it a beginning, symbolic politics, or an insult?

In present-day Benin, there was a kingdom called Dahomey that lasted for over 250 years. The kingdom was central to the transatlantic slave trade, and the king had an all-female army, which was one of the inspirations for the action film The Woman King. Many of the finest art pieces from the kingdom were looted, with 26 of them ending up at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. The award-winning director Mati Diop follows the journey of these objects back to Benin in a mesmerizing and almost hypnotic way. With her unique and visually impressive filmmaking, it is as if the objects come to life, telling the story of hundreds of years of colonialism and oppression.

«Dahomey is a striking, stirring example of the poetry that can result when the dead and the dispossessed speak to and through the living.»

– Jessica Kiang, Variety –

Jon Sæter

The Critical Room // Art going astray

After the screening of DAHOMEY on Friday, November 15, at 17:45 in Tancred, we invite you to a panel conversation on colonialism, conservation, and representation.

The screening is supported by Institut français de Norvège.

Baby Cinema

The screening of DAHOMEY on Tuesday November 12 at 13:00 in Vega 2 will be a Baby Cinema screening. This means that the lights will be on in the cinema and the sound will be lower than on regular screenings. 

Screen Africa

This film is programmed by guest curator Mosa Mpetha. Mosa is the co-founder of Black Cinema Project.

Director

Mati Diop (b. 1982) is a French-Senegalese director and actress. For her film Atlantics, she won the Grand Prix award at Cannes in 2019, and for Dahomey, she received the prestigious Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film Festival.

This film is part of