What would have gone through the mind of a king who had been exiled from his country for more than a century? What would have happened if that monarch had taken the form of a wooden statue, boxed up for shipment from France to West Africa? Do you worry about recognizing your homeland? Perhaps his thoughts may turn toward something abstract: “Infinity resonates within me.” Choosing an inanimate object, no matter how resonant, as a philosophical protagonist and narrator would be a challenge for any filmmaker. But French-Senegalese director Mati Diop accomplishes exactly this to powerful effect in his new film Dahomey.
Part documentary, part film and sound poem, Dahomey follows a consignment of historical artifacts by the French government until they are returned to their source in the former African nation of Dahomey, now Benin. Masu. Dahomey, which won the Golden Bear, the top prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, is the latest victory for Diop, 42. For a decade and a half, he was a much-admired figure in world cinema, first as an actor and then as an actor. director. She made her memorable acting debut in 2008 with Claire Denis’ hypnotic urban dreamer 35 Shots of Rum, and went on to become the first black female director to have a feature film in competition at Cannes. I did. That was the phantom “Atlantics” of 2019. This is the story of young Senegalese men who attempt a dangerous journey to Europe by boat, only to return as ghosts.
Director Mati Diop’s film “Dahomey” is filmed as a royal statue is returned to Benin, West Africa, after being plundered by French colonial forces. Photo: © Les Films du Bal – Fanta Sy
Dahomey talks about his return. The journey back to Africa is now a quest for a series of royal treasures. Controversially, it is just 26 of the thousands of items looted by French troops after the French invasion of Dahomey in 1892. Diop, sitting in the library of a central London hotel in the city to present his film at the BFI London Film Festival, said the return of these artefacts began in 2021, but he has already written fiction on the subject. He explained in French that he had planned it. A few years.
“It was to be a unique story, from the time the African Mask was captured to the day he returned home, and his experience of exile in Europe in between. I was just about to start writing when the Royal Treasures were returned. I read an article that said.
Diop has described Dahomey as “a promising film” (French for science fiction film). In fact, there’s something very futuristic and techno-conscious about the film, especially in the way Dahomey King Gezo’s “bo,” or statue, a powerful figure, narrates in electronically processed tones. .
However, Diop also literally means “expectation.” That’s because she never expected the items to be repatriated in the foreseeable future, she said. “I saw it happening in 2070 or 2080, and I couldn’t have imagined it before that. There is a readiness in French and European politics to recognize colonization as a crime against humanity. There was nothing to suggest that.”
When Diop learned that the statues and other artefacts would be returned to Benin, he knew he needed to get to work quickly and film the transport. “I felt it was my duty.” She was assisted by Senegalese author and academic Ferouin Sarr, co-author of a study on reparations commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron. Mr. Searle has been instrumental in working with the Benin government. Diop said: “They understood that I needed to be with the work all the time to tell the story from the perspective of the statue. And they also understood that this was not the original purpose of the government film.” It had to be my movie and they respected that. ”
A key section on Dahomey shows a discussion Diop organized among Benin students to discuss the importance of repatriating art. Their comments get to the heart of Dahomey’s broader themes. In particular, one young woman whose first language was Fon said that when she learned about her culture, it was in French.
Mati Diop and Alex Descas in “35 Shots of Rum” directed by Claire Denis. Photo: New Wave Film
“It’s important to hear the words coming from the continent itself,” Diop says. “There is a limit to how much we can hear the word ‘colonialism’ from academic research. Sooner or later we have to hear it from people who live with the consequences.”
Diop has known Africa since childhood. She was born in Paris to a French mother and a Senegalese father named Wasis Diop, a singer and guitarist with whom Matty shot an atmospheric music video in 2021. As a child, her mother regularly took her to Senegal.
“I am very grateful to her, because otherwise I would have been cut off from a part of myself, like many mixed-race people. Everything is organized to give up my dual culture.At 25 years old, I had to fight to find my African side.
Ms. Diop grew up in the eastern 12th arrondissement of Paris, in what she describes as a “boring area, neither working class nor bourgeois.” She currently lives in the Chinatown district of southern Paris, which is lined with skyscrapers. She created the short film “In My Room” during the coronavirus pandemic. The piece, which shows Diop lonely and reminiscing about his late maternal grandmother in his 24th-floor apartment, and in which he modeled a variety of Miu Miu dresses, was commissioned by the fashion label and remains one of the most popular pieces during lockdown. It’s one of the most effective movies.
Skip past newsletter promotions
Analysis and opinion on the week’s news and culture from Observer’s best writers.
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may include information about charities, online advertising, and content sponsored by external parties. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and are subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
After newsletter promotion
As an actor, I realized that this world was a predatory world dominated by white men of a certain age, and I found that terrifying.
As a teenager, she dreamed of becoming a singer. “I really wanted to be a star. If I wanted to sing, I didn’t just want to sing in my bedroom.” She continued to work in stage sound and video production, but her acting career in “35 Shots of Rum” It also became a big hit on the screen. She plays Josephine, the daughter of a Parisian train driver and a young black female intellectual rarely portrayed in film. Diop admits that the role was a lot like her, but if Dennis had offered her a role like Béatrice Dalle in the director’s gory art-horror Trouble Everyday, I think it would have been better. “I wanted to be in a movie like this!” she laughs. “Now I’m so proud to play Josephine, but at the time I wanted to do the opposite. Kerk chose trash!”
One can imagine that Diop could have achieved immense stardom if he had wanted to. She has an impressive figure, and her discursive confidence is matched by her lean beauty and angular elegance. She has one arm around her waist and often emphasizes her points with hand movements. In fact, she appeared in only a few films, most of them on the fringes of art films, before deciding that acting wasn’t for her.
“I realized that this world is a predatory world dominated by white men of a certain age, and I found it terrifying. I can’t articulate it at that age. Because I didn’t have the intellectual or political tools, I decided to stand behind the camera rather than in front of it as a way to protect myself by staying in control and not just an object of desire. It was.”
Among the several short films directed by Diop was 2013’s A Thousand Suns. The film, shot in Dakar, is a memorial to her uncle, director Djibril Diop Mambéty, who died in 1998 and whose hallucinatory images and absurdist sensibilities have enjoyed a high status in African cinema. It was. “I realized that it was important for me to start films where he stopped. Maybe if he had continued to make films, I would not have become a director. I will carry on his legacy. I chose that.”
She says his work is “completely unique and impossible to imitate.” But some people have tried it. Mambéty’s most famous film, the 1973 classic Touki Bouki, contains one of African cinema’s most famous images. It’s a young couple riding a bike with handlebars decorated with horned cow skulls. When Beyoncé and Jay-Z plastered the quote in a promotion for their 2018 On the Run II tour, Diop made a sharp comment about the “unbearable lightness of the mainstream” and called out skeptics. declared.
“Did I say that?” she says when I remind her. “Mainstream is completely part of my culture. I’m rather anti-elitist. I hate any hierarchy between high culture and popular culture. It’s very French.” But she says: say. “I was surprised at how casually Beyoncé appropriated[the image]. It’s so American, so dominant.” If she had had the decency to say the name of that movie, a million people would have heard it. may have discovered. But I still like listening to her music. ”
Diop’s current plans are focused on Africa. She founded a production company in Dakar with the aim of collaborating with young African filmmakers. Mr. Diop remains wary about current French society and how current political trends may affect the future repatriation of African treasures more broadly.
“The choice that Europe seems to be making is a trend towards fascism. Perhaps the left will reinvent itself in response. And perhaps then the debate on reparations will pick up again and in 2070 We would be living in a different world.”
Dahomey will be released in UK and Irish cinemas on October 25th.
