A One Mann’s Movies review of “Dahomey” (2024) (from the London Film Festival).
“Dahomey” is my first film as a press delegate at this year’s London Film Festival (which opens to the public on October 9th).
Every day I do the online quiz called Worldle (note the extra “l”) where you have to identify a country from its outline. I try to learn aide memoires for some of the countries in Africa, which is my bete noire continent. Benin I know, for example, because it is shaped like a stick of broccoli! And it is off to Benin that we go with this film. It’s a dramatised documentary which was, sadly for me, less than thrilling.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
After a war between France and the Kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin) the French plundered 7,000 artifacts. We follow 26 of those missing pieces as they are repatriated to Benin and observe the diverse views as to what the act means.
Certification:
UK: PG; US: NR. (From the BBFC Web site: “Mild threat, discrimination references.)
Talent:
Directed by: Mati Diop.
Written by: Mati Diop & Malkenzy Orcel.
Running Time: 1h 8m.
“Dahomey” Summary:
Positives:
- Artfully photographed.
- Some thought-provoking arguments in a student debate
Negatives:
- Portentious ‘speaking statues’
- A bit slow and dull.
Review of “Dahomey”:
Slow and content-lite.
As I’ve said before, I like my documentaries to show me something surprising about the world that I didn’t know about. “Dahomey” is a bit light in that regard as we follow (painfully slowly and artfully) a number of statues and other artifacts as they are boxed up in a Paris museum. True, I was not aware that France had plundered these items at the end of the 19th century, but it didn’t really pass the “so what” test for me. The colonising nations (Britain included of course) have plundered materials from most of the developing countries around the world. What made this less impactful for me was that many of these items were not from the 12th century BC…. they were from the late 1890’s, barely officially making them “antiques”. The Elgin Marbles these are not.
But the Beninese are passionate.
There’s no denying though the passion felt in some quarters by their return. Brightly coloured celebrations erupt in the street as the treasures make their way from airport to museum. One young female student (to much mocking from the audience) declares that she “cried for 15 minutes” when she got to the museum, carried away by the emotion.
Perhaps this is the best part of the film: a student forum where different parties voice different views about the return. Some of these young people are incensed that only 26 out of 7,000 items have been returned. Others voice that “it’s a good start” and better than nothing! Others declare that the French move is nothing more than a political publicity stunt, aimed at bolstering their declining “brand” in the African continent. The discussion rambles into the general grievance that France still holds a strong sway over the country, with passionate speakers breaking into the native ‘Fon’ language to get their point across. We stray into the spiritual significance of the items as one speaker says that the country is hypocritical in pretending to follow the main religions when after church ‘most’ Beninese go home to practice ‘Vodun’ (Voodoo).
Talking in the dark
Where the film strays into a bit of pretention is when a statue of King Ghezo (“number 26”) starts talking in a deep and sonorous voice in Fon. The screen is black while this is happening, save for the subtitles. We are supposed to believe that we are the statue, sealed in his crate and transported by air to Benin. (I do not believe they put a camera with an extra large battery and an extra large memory card inside the crate!!). The prose that the statue spouts is not enlightening and for me just bad poetry.
Summary Thoughts on “Dahomey”
Some of the politics of Benin was interesting and Porto Novo looks like an interesting place to visit. This documentary won the “Golden Bear” at the Berlin Film Festival. But I’m afraid it failed to really engage my attention.
Dahomey, at around this time period, was of course the setting for the fictional adventure from last year “The Woman King“.
By the way, there’s a news article about the return here if you’re interested.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Dahomey”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNhLCQabJ0I .
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