Mati Diop Makes History With Her Sophomore Film 'Dahomey'

Senegalese French filmmaker Mati Diop has become the first Black director to win the Golden Bear, the award for Best Film, at the Berlin Film Festival. She won the top prize for her documentary feature, Dahomey, which is about the first major return of looted artifacts from Europe to Africa. The award was announced and presented by Oscar-winning actress and head of jury at this year’s festival, Lupita Nyong’o.

The hour-plus long Dahomey follows the return of a pack of 26 treasures back to Cotonou, the capital of the Benin Republic. The artifacts, which include sculpted, zoomorphic figures of King Ghezo and his heirs Glele and Béhanzin, were looted back in 1892. In Dahomey, Diop partly narrates from the perspective of a looted artifact, and also captures the celebration that erupted in Cotonou upon the arrival of the treasures.

“To restitute is to do justice,” Diop said while receiving the top prize at the awards gala for this year’s Berlinale. “We can either get rid of the past as an unpleasant burden that only hinders our evolution, or we can take the responsibility and use it as the basis for moving forward.” These sentiments echo her statement at the festival premiere of Dahomey over a week ago, where she charged France to return many more artifacts back to Africa.

“It’s quite clear that they were way too few compared with the 7,000 works that are still held captive in these museums. These 26 works are good but are not enough, and I certainly think that it is humiliating. I would say we need to think about more than just the way it was staged and all the governmental communication of this process.”

Diop’s win is in line with the Berlinale’s history of awarding topical films with experimental leanings. This achievement for Dahomey also continues to add more laurels to Diop’s already incredible résumé. In 2019, she became the first Black Woman in the Competition section of the Cannes Film Festival, and she went on to win the Grand Prix award for Atlantique, which tells a vulnerable story on migration, love and youth.

Dahomey is another effort from a filmmaker who’s interested in telling the most pertinent, socially relevant stories from Africa. “[This prize] not only honors me but the entire visible and invisible community that the film represents,” Diop added in her Golden Bear acceptance speech.