
SummaryThe journey of 26 plundered royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey exhibited in Paris, now being returned to Benin. Diop artistically voices a new generation's demands.
Directed By:Mati Diop
Written By:Mati Diop, Malkenzy Orcel
Dahomey
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
85
User score
Mixed or Average
5.9
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Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
85
100% Positive
23 Reviews
23 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Nov 7, 2024
100
Diop’s latest documentary film is a poetic witnessing of the contradictions, mediations and politics of cultural restitution.
Oct 29, 2024
90
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.
Feb 23, 2024
90
Diop folds the poetic into the political, without ever becoming didactic.
Mar 8, 2024
88
Mati Diop’s captivating, fabulistic documentary Dahomey confronts the reality of how modernity has been shaped by the West’s theft of cultural heritage.
Oct 24, 2024
80
The cool, often static shots and unhurried editing are characteristic of a school of documentary film-making that allows the viewer complete freedom to shuffle significances. There is a beauty in the empty precision.
Oct 23, 2024
70
Dahomey may not be for everyone. Unless you’re a history nut or anthropologist, there will be lulls when you find your concentration lagging. However, at a runtime of just over an hour, Diop makes every shot count and packs centuries of history, injustice, and triumph into a dense but vivid documentary.
User score
Mixed or Average
5.9
56% Positive
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
19% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
25% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
Dec 13, 2024
8
Dahomey é sobre processos de colonização, aculturação, ao qual o povo de Benin está submetido, com um começo mais contemplativo mostrando 26 peças que o governo de Macron devolve ao país de origem. Após esse ato inicial, vem a porrada: a forma como a população, eme especial os estudantes, recebem os artefatos, pondo em choque os conflitos multiculturais, bem como as boas intenções do governo francês, assim como expondo as feridas de tal dano, irreparável. Assim, o clímax é basicamente baseado nos dicursos dessas pessoas. Se como cinema mais parece uma conferência filmada, por outro lado, não há como ignorar as fortes falas, com uma riqueza antropológica e sociológica dignas de excelentes reflexões.
Production Company:
- Les Films du Bal
- Fanta Sy
- Arte France Cinéma
- République Du Bénin
- Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC)
- La Région Île-de-France
- Arte France
- Fonds de Promotion de l'Industrie Cinématographique et Audiovisuelle du Sénégal (FOPICA)
- Hiris Production
Release Date:Oct 25, 2024
Duration:1 h 8 m
Awards
Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US
• 1 Win & 5 Nominations
Berlin International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
ZagrebDox
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations




























