A film by Mati Diop
About the return of the royal treasures of Abomey in Benin, snatched away by colonial plunder, to a country that has had to build itself up and come to terms with their absence.
Our rate: **
A documentary with a slightly entertaining form (Mati Diop gives a voice to the works of art on their journey back to Africa), it has the merit of putting the spotlight on an important and often overlooked issue. The place of art in Africa is at the heart of the film’s interrogations, and the return of some 26 works of art to Benin filmed in this way immortalizes this moment, which could be the first stone of a much more profound change, of a new world somewhere. The aesthetics and poetry of Mati Diop’s images, as seen in Atlantique, her first feature film, are also present.