Dahomey | Somerville - Lotterywest Films

In 2021 the Musée du Quai Branly announced it would return some of the antiquities held in its collection to the Republic of Benin. Thereafter, French filmmaker Mati Diop was hot on their trail.

It is estimated that British troops looted around 5,000 Benin bronzes during the occupation of Nigeria alone, with only a fraction having been returned since. The repatriation of forcibly displaced things is a topic of global significance that needs to be answered to achieve a more equitable world. So, when 26 plundered royal treasures are returned to Benin from the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, Mati Diop captures their journey.

But what is the value and impact of this act when there are still so many displaced objects to recover and return? What would happen if these stolen possessions could talk and tell their own story? What sense of connection should the young people of Nigeria have to these objects now? This Golden Bear-winning documentary lyrically evokes these questions of real decolonisation, and more. A vivid and artful essay on what it means to restore ownership and a mischievous call to attention to the very live legacy of historic looting.

• Director Mati Diop
• Screenwriter Mati Diop
• Cinematographer Joséphine Drouin-Viallard
• Composers Wally Badarou & Dean Blunt
• Editors Gabriel Gonzalez
• Distributor/Sales Agent Rialto