It’s no secret that the world’s colonial powers frequently looted the artistic treasures of other countries, and that those treasures often wound up in very reputable museums. So…what to do with them? Mati Diop’s Dahomey, winner of the Golden Bear (top prize) at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, has a few things to say about that. The film is a creative and thought-provoking exploration of the return of 26 artifacts from the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris to their home country of Benin (formerly the kingdom of Dahomey), with special attention paid to the final repatriated work, a statue of King Ghezo. The film deftly blends fact and fiction, presenting the surprisingly fraught case for the repatriation of these artworks, and the sometimes delicate dance involved in righting the wrongs of colonialism. Diop, in only her second feature (her first was the acclaimed Atlantics in 2019), makes it clear that the treasures belong in Benin, but shows that the path to getting them there is not always a straight line. ~SM
After the film, there is a discussion with Richard Saunders, Director of the Middlebury College Museum, and Alex Bortolot, Deputy Director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.