Films Calendar Specials Expat Information Venues
NL
EN
Bekijk de trailer

Dahomey - Expat Cinema

In 2021, the French government decided to return 26 art objects once stolen from the African kingdom of Dahomey. What all is involved? Winner Golden Bear.

Order tickets

Deze voorstelling maakt deel uit van Rialto Filmclub met als gastspreker deze maand Ernst-Jan Pfauth.

On the 15th of December the film screening at Rialto de Pijp will be hosted by The Aunties, a new non-profit initiative founded to empower women and especially Afro-descendants through education, mentorship, and community-building.

 

Dahomey

The museums of former colonial rulers are full of art treasures once looted from their colonies. To the people of those former colonies, these objects are much more than fine art objects; they are objects of great historical, cultural and/or religious importance. This realisation is beginning to dawn on the former colonisers, and slowly but surely they have begun to return these ‘looted art’. What this involves is shown by French director Mati Diop in this important documentary. It earned her the Golden Bear at the last Berlinale.

In 1892, French troops looted the kingdom of Dahomey, now Benin, and took hundreds of art objects back to France. In 2021, the French government agreed to return 26 of those objects - a complicated and sometimes controversial process. Diop gives voice to one of the returning images, she shows who is taking care of that art in Benin, and she shows the debate going on in academic circles about it. Central question: why did it take so long?