Dahomey doc wins at Berlin Film Festival

French-Senegalese director Mati Diop’s documentary film Dahomey has won the Golden Bear for best film, the top prize at the 74th Berlin Film Festival.

The film was among 20 contenders at the event and gives an account of 26 artefacts from the Kingdom of Dahomey, in modern day Benin, that were held in a museum in France. The film explores how the artefacts were returned to Benin, and the reactions of the Beninese people.

Diop said: “The prize not only honours me but the entire visible and invisible community that the film represents. To rebuild, we must first restitute, and what does restitution mean? To restitute is to do justice.”

Dahomey is an international coproduction between companies Les Films du Bal and Les Films du Losange in France, as well as Fanta Sy in Senegal and Benin. It is scheduled for theatrical release in France on September 25.