Mati Diop on Dahomey (2024)

Celebrating Cinema

When 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey (modern-day Republic of Benin) would finally be returned from France, filmmaker Mati Diop was granted rare access to document this historic moment. Dahomey, Mati's deeply moving and thought-provoking documentary, is the result of that access—a cinematic meditation that not only chronicles the repatriation of these artefacts but also imagines the voices of the objects themselves while focusing on the emotional responses of the Beninese people.

Building on the genre-defying spirit of her debut Atlantiques, Mati uses this personal and collective journey as a lens to explore the themes of return, restitution, and memory. Again weaving together fiction and reality in search of deeper truths. In conversation with host Elliot, Mati reflects on the making of Dahomey, the cultural significance of the treasures' homecoming, and the profound, ongoing relationship between history, identity, and filmmaking.