Repatriation

Dahomey (2024) - Diop Darkness. Then a booming female/male voice announces the journey to their homeland. It's the voice of a statue, one of the 26 such artifacts France is sending back to its former colony, Benin. The statue was taken by the French soldiers from the kingdom of Dahomey 130 years ago. The voice raises concerns about its return since it was uprooted from their homeland so long ago. It's made from the image of King Ghezo, who ruled the kingdom in the early 19th Century. It doesn't have a name. The name that was given for this occasion is 26, as in, the 26th statue that was chosen to make the journey back out of 7,000 artifacts that are currently in Europe after being taken from Benin.

Mati Diop, acclaimed French actor/director (Atlantics) with Senegalese ancestry, chronicles the journey of the artifacts step by step in Dahomey, from handling and putting them into the wooden crates by workers, under the watchful eyes of artists and other cultural emissaries, painstakingly assessing the conditions of each wooden pieces of art. They comment on the significance of the events. Diop’s camera joins the serious gaze of these officials and respectfully captures these large, awe inspiring objects - Besides King Ghezo's likeness, there's King Glele as half-man, half- lion, King Béhanzin as half-man, half-Shark. There are exquisitely carved thrones and doors of the kings taken from the Royal Palace of Abomey of the Dahomey kingdom. The return of these artifacts are the result of what came as calls mount in Africa for European countries to return the colonial spoils in their museums, universities and private collections.

As the large, magnificent artifacts are getting set up in Benin's Presidential Palace for exhibition, Diop cross-cuts the exhibition with the lively debates on the repatriation in a public forum among young people, in the background of bustling Cotonou, the capital of Benin.

The return is a direct result of a pressure campaign by local and international activists. In the forum, some liken the return to putting the souls back to these artifacts. Still, some see it as a shrewd ploy by Macron and Patrice Talon, Benin's president, who are eager to score political points with the African populace. Some see it as an insult, with only 26 out of thousands being returned and deem that celebration is premature. For others, the return is welcome, but understand the repatriation of physical culture doesn't replace the intangible culture - song, dance and oral storytelling which stood in place of the absence of these objects. Through these spirited debates, Diop captures the awakening national pride, questioning the remnants of the colonial education system and even speaking French as the official language - when there are many different local languages spoken throughout the country. No one can argue that the return is not a good start though. It's reflected in the faces of the children when they see these treasures in person at the exhibition.

Dahomey is a spiritual heir to Alain Resnais and Chris Marker's 1953 essay film, Statues Also Die (1953) about how colonialism affected the way African Art is perceived and also Abderramane Sissako's Bamako (2006) in terms of self-determination and awakening of African consciousness through debates in the globalized world. It's a hopeful avant-documentary that needs to be seen widely.

A Ghost Story with Female Solidarity Twist

Atlantics (2019) - Diop

Mati Diop, better known as an actress for such films as 35 Shots of Rum, Simon Killer and Hermia & Helena, makes her feature directorial debut with dazzling Atlantics, based on her 2009 short of the same name. In her short, young Senegalese boys were shown discussing the pros and cons of leaving the country for Europe on the beach at night. The feature narrative version expands the premise with a whole narrative that shifts from the male to female perspective, as women are usually the ones left behind with the emotional trauma and economical hardships to deal with.

Atlantics starts with a young day laborer Souleiman (Traore) along with hundreds of others working on a futuristic glass tower in outskirts of Dakar. They eat and sleep together in a cramped bunk bed housing. Against the hypnotic, undulating ocean in the background, they go on about their back breaking work. The whole sequence has a documentary feel to it.

The workers haven't gotten paid for months and things are heating up at the payroll office. Souleiman is in love with Ada (Mame Bineta Sane), a young woman who's still living with her parents. Her conservative friend in hijab, Mariama (Mariama Gassama), chastise her for leading him on even though she is set to marry a local hotshot businessman Omar - arranged by their parents. Defiantly, she goes off to see Souleiman. Even though clearly something is eating at him, Ada urges him to wait until they meet again at the local beach bar run by her friend. She sneaks out through the window at night to the bar, only to find out that Souleiman, along with many of his friends set sail to make a dangerous trip across the Atlantic to Spain. Then the news arrive of a capsized refugee boat. Ada is crestfallen.

Someone torches Ada's bridal bed on her wedding night. It prompts a police investigation. The main suspect is Souleiman since there are some witnesses who saw him at the wedding. Police detective Issa (Amadu Mbou), who is suffering from dizzy spell at night, is determined to solve this mystery. Convinced that Ada is protecting Souleiman, he interrogates her harshly and starts trailing her.

Then local girls, including Ada's friends start appearing at night with milky eyes at the house of shady construction manager Mr. N'Diaye, demanding the wages he owes to the workers. It's the spirits of the drowned boys taking over the bodies of girls temporarily every night, haunting the greedy man. The girls, found in various places in the morning, has no recollection of the events. Sometimes the possessed girls show up at the bar, asking for food since they are starving.

Expertly weaving the current headlines of marine disasters, which countless African refugees searching for better life meet their watery grave at the bottom Atlantic ocean, and the ghost story with the female solidarity twist, Atlantics has all the right ingredient to be a success story of a small art film breakthrough recalling Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. It's a melancholic romance film set in bustling Dakar, featuring the lives and hopes of young Senegalese we seldom get to see. It's also hopeful and lyrical yet pointy. And without a doubt, it is my choice for the best film of the year.

Fraternity of Womenhood

Snow Canons (2011) - Diop




Mati Diop, a niece of famous Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty and daughter of a musician Wassis Diop, directs this short film. She is also the luminous actress who starred in one of my all time favorites, Clare Denis's 35 Rhums. She says in an interview that she makes films based on what she finds interesting at that moment. All her films, 4 to date, are very different in subject matter and method I'm told. Snow Canon concerns a slight lesbian romance with the stunning French Alps as a backdrop and its very delicious. A lanky teen Valina (Niala Bal) is left to her own devices in a house overlooking the Alps. She incessantly exchanges texts about boys with her bbf who is traveling in South America. Then an American babysitter Mary Jane (Nour Mobarak) shows up. Smokey eyed and heartbroken, she tells Valina never to fall in love. Valina's sexual curiosity gets the better of her though. Mary Jane is hot. They develop certain physical intimacy. Diop's presentation is never obvious. As they take bath together and play dress up, there is a certain fraternity between them rather than something sexual. Shot in 35mm, the film's gorgeous and less experimental but just as rapturous in its mood and sensuality. There is a nod to a quite a bit of Clare Denis there, not only the appearance of bunny rabbit.

Life's Rich Pageant

35 rhums (2008) - Denis






A family drama so understated yet deeply affecting, 35 rhums showcases Claire Denis's versatility as a filmmaker. It presents the life of an extended Parisian family consists of long-time neighbors in the same building. They are Lionel (Alex Descas), a stoic metro conductor and his daughter, Jo (Mati Diop), a college student, Gabrielle (Nicole Dogue), a cab driver and a one time lover of Lionel who still has feeling for and Noe (Grégoire Colin), a loner who lives up in the penthouse & has been a best friend/love interest of Jo since their childhood.

Times are changing. Lionel's buddy Réne, kills himself after retirement from his longtime metro job. Jo is getting too old to be a daddy's girl anymore. Noe is selling the house and leaving the country because his 17-year old cat just died and nothing in Paris is holding him back(?). Denis weighs each characters equally and the cast is marvelous. Each small gesture, each unspoken moment has profound resonance.

But the film's largely about Lionel and Jo. It's perhaps the tenderest father-daughter relationship I've seen on screen. As they embark on a short road trip to visit the grave of Jo's mother in Germany, they know that they are spending time together like that for the last time and we know this too, even though no words are ever uttered between the two about it.

Said to be an homage to Ozu, 35 rhums comfortably slips in to the universality of human conditions. Paper lanterns in Germany, rice cookers in an African household in France are completely in harmony with their surroundings. It's a beautiful film. I might have to try Vendredi Soir again.