Winner of the coveted Golden Bear prize at the 2024 Berlinale, Dahomey is an immersive and astounding work of art from Mati Diop, director of the award-winning Atlantics.

Taking place in November 2021, the film takes as its subject 26 royal treasures of the Kingdom of Dahomey, which, along with thousands of others, were plundered by French colonial troops in 1892. As these artifacts are due to leave Paris to return to their country of origin, Diop questions how they should be received in a country that has reinvented itself in their absence.

By turns invigorating and thought-provoking, Diop’s latest uses compelling non-traditional storytelling techniques to powerfully bring the past into the present, offering a poetic film hat delves into real perspectives on far-reaching issues surrounding appropriation, self-determination and restitution.

This film contains flickering or flashing lights that may affect those with photosensitive epilepsy.