“Dahomey”
© Les Films du Bal – Fanta Sy
“When I heard that President Emmanuel Macron intended to return the good that was taken from colonial Africa, I realized for the first time that nothing is where it should be,” says Mati Diop in the documentary He spoke at Dahomeywhich premiered at the Berlin Film Festival.
The document tells the story of African art plundered from the Kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century, following 26 artefacts brought back from France to Benin after French President Emmanuel Macron promised reparations in 2017. Among the returned works were original statues from the Kingdom of Dahomey. King Grere and King Beangin and their thrones. (The Kingdom of Dahomey was featured in Viola Davis’ historical epic. queen. )
“The issue of returning these looted items has always been central to my work as a filmmaker,” Diop said through an interpreter at a press conference in Berlin on Sunday. “I’ve been working on a film like this for about 10 years. It took a very long time before I fully realized what it really meant – the return of a work of art in a concrete sense, returned from France. It took time. That’s one of the reasons I’m a filmmaker. I want to help people understand these issues.”
Diop said he originally envisioned the film as a feature-length story about an artifact that traveled from France to Benin. (Diop, who made history as the first black female director to be screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, won the Palme d’Or for her own feature film.) Atlantics.) “When Mr. Macron made the announcement, [this] In 2017, I didn’t know if I would ever witness it in my life. I thought it would happen 20 or 30 years from now,” Diop said. She had begun writing an outline for the script, but when the government announced that the 26 artifacts would be returned, she “needed to seize the moment.”
When Diop made his decision Dahomey She decided to include it because it would be a full-length documentary rather than a short story. The perspective of students and young people in this country. “I started thinking about how young people are engaging with these works, because it’s part of their collective history,” she said.
Diop was joined at the press conference by other young people mentioned in the document, including Hosea Gheje, Habib Ahandessi and Gildas Adannou. Mr. Adanou pointed out that although children in Benin know about the country’s historical artifacts, they do not necessarily learn about this history in school. “We were able to forget because nothing had been said. The whole point of this process was to reconnect with this history. Those who understood what had happened wanted to know more about it. I wanted to.”
When asked what he wanted from the French government regarding the return of other African artefacts, Diop said: I think these 26 works are good, but not enough, and certainly humiliating. I think we need to think beyond the way it was staged and all of the government’s communication about this process. ”
Diop added: “France has exploited this place for centuries. We need to do more. We need to go further. We need to breathe new life into this question, and that’s what I want to do with this film. That’s what I was trying to do. We need to think about reparations in a broader sense.”
