Interval 42. Mati Diop

Dahomey

Friday, 17, and Saturday, 18 January 2025 - 7pm
Admission

Free, until full capacity is reached. Tickets may be collected at the Museo’s Ticket Offices or on the Museo Reina Sofía website from 10am on 15 January (a maximum of 2 per person). 20% of the visitor-capacity will be reserved for attendance without ticket collection on the day of the activity. Doors open 30 minutes before the screening

Place
Nouvel Building, Auditorium 200
Capacity
200 people
Organised by
Museo Reina Sofía
Collaboration
Programme

Intervals is the Museo Reina Sofía’s regular programme premiering recent film work, made up of critically acclaimed films from the year in progress or the previous one. This new edition centres on Dahomey (2024), a feature-length film by French-Senegalese director Mati Diop (Paris, 1982) which explores museums, looting, memory and restitution. Winner of the Golden Bear Award for best film at Berlinale, it is one of the films of 2024.  

November 2021. Twenty-six royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey, the former African State that existed between the seventeenth century and the early twentieth century, are on the verge of leaving the French museum, where they have been displayed for over a century, to return to their country of origin, today’s Republic of Benin. Along with thousands of other artefacts, these sculptures were looted by French colonial troops in 1892. What attitude do we adopt regarding the restitution of these ancestors in a country that has pushed ahead without a large part of its stolen heritage?  

The film straddles documentary strategy and subtle fiction, drawing on the supernatural and oral culture which gives a voice to the statues. As they are being dismounted in the Musée du Quay-Brainly they speak out, like ghosts, to talk of their protracted captivity in the “caverns of the civilised world”. Upon their return to Benin, an assembly of students from the University of Abomey-Calavi opens a debate to raise questions about the meaning of this restoration, the role culture plays in constructing identity and, ultimately, how to rethink museums today from their colonial heritage. In this film, Mati Diop, who has been honoured with awards for some of her other works, for instance the Jury Prize at Cannes for Atlantique (2019) and FID Marseille’s Grand Prix in International Competition for Mille Soleils (2013), draws on realism and fable to make one of the most urgent and necessary films of our time.


Programme

Friday, 17 January 2025 - 7pm / Second session: Saturday, 18 January 2025 - 7pm

Mati Diop. Dahomey
France, Senegal, Singapore and Benin, 2024, colour, original version in French and Yoruba with Spanish subtitles, DA, 68’

Credits

Director:
Mati Diop
Screenplay:
Mati Diop and Makenzy Orcel
Production:
Les Films du Bal and Fanta Sy
Co-production:
Arte France Cinéma, Republic of Benin, Centre national du cinéma et de l´image animée (CNC), La Région Île-de-France, Arte France and Fonds de Promotion de l’Industrie Cinématographique et Audiovisuelle du Sénégal (FOPICA)
Music:
Wally Badarou and Dean Blunt
Photography:
Joséphine Drouin-Viallard
Editing:
Gabriel González
Students from the Univesity of Abomey-Calavi:
Imelda Batamoussi, Diane Cakpo, Chamelie Dognon, Morias Agbessi, Gilbert Godovo, Gildas Adannou, Josea Guedje, Gaël Daavo, Rose Ouemeho, Habib Ahandessi, Maryline Agbossi, Didier Sedoha Nassangade, Raïmi Bassitou Nouatin, Joël Tchogbe, Edah Gontran, Donald Gbossa, Yvon Kossou-Yovo, Donald Gbossa, Edah Gontran, Messi Boco, Odilon Gbenontin, Kevin Da-Silva, Dowoti Desir, Micheline Ayinon, Bicarel Gnikpo and Nadiahiuvoutou Kponadou
Managers and the exhibition team at the Musée du Quay-Branly:
Calixte Biah, Abdoulaye Imorou, Paul Timothee Doto, Jules Bocco, Richard Jv Sogan, Didier Donatien Alihonou, Alain Godonou and students from INMAAC (promotions 2019 - 2020)