Chinese sales company Beijing Hugoeast Media has boarded Japanese director Takuro Ijichi’s feature debut Vicissitude, ahead of its world premiere in the Asian New Talent competition of the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival (June 14-23).
It marks the first Japanese title for the Beijing-based company, which handles worldwide sales excluding Japan.
The Japanese drama follows two boys who grow up in a rural town in Kagoshima prefecture where they find joy in nature until they learn the absurdities of life. The film touches on the social issues of loneliness in Japanese society and high suicide rates among young generations.
It marks the first Japanese title for the Beijing-based company, which handles worldwide sales excluding Japan.
The Japanese drama follows two boys who grow up in a rural town in Kagoshima prefecture where they find joy in nature until they learn the absurdities of life. The film touches on the social issues of loneliness in Japanese society and high suicide rates among young generations.
- 6/12/2024
- ScreenDaily
Everything is ready for the 14th edition of the Festival Internacional de Cine Unam (Ficunam), which will take place from June 13 to 20 in Mexico City. As part of the Atlas section, we will finally be able to see Harmony Korine’s new experimental film in Cdmx: Aggro Dr1ft, starring rapper Travis Scott and notorious for having been “shot entirely through termal lens.” This section, dedicated to international auteur cinema, also includes recent works by Wang Bing (Youth (Spring)), Mati Diop (the documentary Dahomey), Tsai Ming-liang (Abiding Nowhere), Kleber Mendoça Filho (Pictures of Ghosts), Pedro Costa (The Daughters of Fire), and Hong Sang-soo (A Traveler’s Needs). Straight from Cannes comes Payal Kapadia’s Grand Prix-winning drama All We Imagine as Light. This Mumbai-set film is part...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 6/7/2024
- Screen Anarchy
Exclusive: After clinching the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2019 with her debut fiction feature Atlantics, French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop had one burning desire.
“My dream was to set up a film school in Dakar,” she tells Deadline.
Diop made history that year in Cannes as the first Black woman to compete in the festival’s official competition. She clocked a similar milestone in February when she became the first Black filmmaker to win Berlin’s Golden Bear with the inventive documentary Dahomey.
Borrowing its name from the ancient West African kingdom of Dahomey, located in the south of today’s Republic of Benin, the doc opens in November 2021 as twenty-six royal treasures from the former Kingdom are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin. Along with thousands of others, the artifacts were plundered by French colonial troops in 1892.
Dahomey is Diop’s second feature project and the first from Fanta Sy,...
“My dream was to set up a film school in Dakar,” she tells Deadline.
Diop made history that year in Cannes as the first Black woman to compete in the festival’s official competition. She clocked a similar milestone in February when she became the first Black filmmaker to win Berlin’s Golden Bear with the inventive documentary Dahomey.
Borrowing its name from the ancient West African kingdom of Dahomey, located in the south of today’s Republic of Benin, the doc opens in November 2021 as twenty-six royal treasures from the former Kingdom are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin. Along with thousands of others, the artifacts were plundered by French colonial troops in 1892.
Dahomey is Diop’s second feature project and the first from Fanta Sy,...
- 5/9/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
A 17-title buying spree from Scandinavian and Baltic distributor NonStop Entertainment includes deals for Mati Diop’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Dahomey, and Aaron Schimberg’s Sundance title A Different Man.
Diop’s documentary Dahomey tells the story of 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey (located within present-day Benin in Africa) that were returned to Benin after being held in a French museum. Films du Losange handles sales.
Sold by A24, Schimberg’s A Different Man stars Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve and Adam Pearson in the story of a man with neurofibromatosis, who undergoes surgery for a new start...
Diop’s documentary Dahomey tells the story of 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey (located within present-day Benin in Africa) that were returned to Benin after being held in a French museum. Films du Losange handles sales.
Sold by A24, Schimberg’s A Different Man stars Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve and Adam Pearson in the story of a man with neurofibromatosis, who undergoes surgery for a new start...
- 3/28/2024
- ScreenDaily
Bettina Blümner’s “Vamos a la playa” won ArteKino Festival’s European Audience Award at a ceremony co-organized by the iconic French fashion house Chanel in Paris.
Held at La Femis, Paris’ prestigious film school, the event also included a conversation with French filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski (“Other People’s Children”), followed by a ceremony honoring Blümner and a screening of “Vamos a la playa,” as well as a posh cocktail which brought together film talent, executives and students.
ArteKino Festival is a competitive online event taking place in December and showcasing director-driven films which are made available in six language across 32 countries on the website of Arte and its YouTube channel.
“Vamos a la playa” was one of the 12 feature films selected for the latest edition of ArteKino Festival, an initiative spearheaded by Remi Burah, ArteKino Foundation president and CEO of Arte France Cinema, the film division of the TV network.
Held at La Femis, Paris’ prestigious film school, the event also included a conversation with French filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski (“Other People’s Children”), followed by a ceremony honoring Blümner and a screening of “Vamos a la playa,” as well as a posh cocktail which brought together film talent, executives and students.
ArteKino Festival is a competitive online event taking place in December and showcasing director-driven films which are made available in six language across 32 countries on the website of Arte and its YouTube channel.
“Vamos a la playa” was one of the 12 feature films selected for the latest edition of ArteKino Festival, an initiative spearheaded by Remi Burah, ArteKino Foundation president and CEO of Arte France Cinema, the film division of the TV network.
- 3/27/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
“Dahomey,” the Berlinale Golden Bear-winning film helmed by French-Senegalese director Mati Diop, has been sold to a raft of international territories by Les Films du Losange.
Along with being acquired by Mubi in key markets, “Dahomey” has been acquired in Australia & New Zealand (Rialto), China (Hugoeast), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nitrato Filmes), Greece (One From the Heart), Scandinavia (NonStop Entertainement), Benelux (Cinéart), Bulgaria (Beta Films), Ex-Yugoslavia (Discovery), Hungary (Mozinet), Czech Republic (Film Europe), Romania (Voodoo), Baltic Countries (Taip Toliau), Poland (New Horizons), Ukraine (Kyivmusicfilm), Taiwan (Joint Entertainment), Indonesia (Pt Falcon) and Sudu Connexion in Africa.
“Dahomey” was previously acquired by Mubi for North America, Latin America, U.K., Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, India and Turkey. Les Films du Losange is currently negotiating more international sales deals and will distribute the film in theaters in France.
Weaving fantasy and documentary, “Dahomey” explores the issue of colonization through the story of precious...
Along with being acquired by Mubi in key markets, “Dahomey” has been acquired in Australia & New Zealand (Rialto), China (Hugoeast), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nitrato Filmes), Greece (One From the Heart), Scandinavia (NonStop Entertainement), Benelux (Cinéart), Bulgaria (Beta Films), Ex-Yugoslavia (Discovery), Hungary (Mozinet), Czech Republic (Film Europe), Romania (Voodoo), Baltic Countries (Taip Toliau), Poland (New Horizons), Ukraine (Kyivmusicfilm), Taiwan (Joint Entertainment), Indonesia (Pt Falcon) and Sudu Connexion in Africa.
“Dahomey” was previously acquired by Mubi for North America, Latin America, U.K., Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, India and Turkey. Les Films du Losange is currently negotiating more international sales deals and will distribute the film in theaters in France.
Weaving fantasy and documentary, “Dahomey” explores the issue of colonization through the story of precious...
- 3/26/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Before we put our focus on the upcoming edition of the Cannes Film Festival, we look back at our coverage of the Berlinale – a competition that many would agree was subpar and sidebar selections that did indeed offer some gems. Mati Diop’s Dahomey (read review) claimed the top prize and Behtash Saneeha & Maryam Moghaddam’s My Favourite Cake (read our ★★★★review) was the overall critical darling among critics. This year Our Nicholas Bell was also part of filmneweurope.com’s Fipresci grid (worth noting that they have a grading system that is less precise and incompatible with our grading system) and we’ve also added Screen Daily’s chart for further comparison – see after the jump below.…...
- 3/13/2024
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
French director Claire Denis is set to return to West Africa for her next feature film, an adaptation of late French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès’s 1980 work Black Battles With Dogs (Combat de nègre et de chiens).
“It’s a play written by a friend of mine a long time ago and directed by Patrice Chéreau on stage in the 80s. He was dying from AIDS and he wanted me to make a film out of it,” Denis told Deadline on the fringes of the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra meeting in Qatar.
She is planning to film in either Senegal or Cameroon.
Denis grew up in West Africa and set a number of her early films in the region, such as Chocolat (1988) and Beau Travail (1989). This will be her first major fiction feature shot on the African continent since the 2009 drama White Material, starring Isabelle Huppert as a coffee plantation...
“It’s a play written by a friend of mine a long time ago and directed by Patrice Chéreau on stage in the 80s. He was dying from AIDS and he wanted me to make a film out of it,” Denis told Deadline on the fringes of the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra meeting in Qatar.
She is planning to film in either Senegal or Cameroon.
Denis grew up in West Africa and set a number of her early films in the region, such as Chocolat (1988) and Beau Travail (1989). This will be her first major fiction feature shot on the African continent since the 2009 drama White Material, starring Isabelle Huppert as a coffee plantation...
- 3/5/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSDahomey.Mati Diop’s Dahomey (2024), a documentary about the repatriation of artifacts plundered by French colonists to the present-day Republic of Benin, won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale. It is only the second film from the African continent to take the festival’s top prize.The Berlinale has filed criminal charges against activists who hacked the festival’s Instagram account on Sunday to post calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which the festival deemed “anti-Semitic.”The festival has also released a statement disavowing the acceptance speeches of award winners who used their platform to speak out against the occupation and war. Such speeches included those by Ben Russell and Guillaume Cailleau, whose Direct Action won Best Film in the Encounters section, and by Yuval Abraham,...
- 2/29/2024
- MUBI
The spice must flow, and take over most theaters. While Denis Villeneuve’s gargantuan-sized blockbuster will suck up much of the oxygen when it comes to discussions around March’s releases, there’s plenty more to uncover. From adventurous festival favorites to micro-sized productions to a would-be blockbuster relegated to streaming, here are my picks for what to see next month.
15. Road House (Doug Liman; March 21)
While his recent output hasn’t touched the entertainment value of Edge of Tomorrow, The Bourne Identity, or Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Doug Liman seems quite confident in the crowdpleaser appeal of his Jake Gyllenhaal-led Road House remake. While he won’t be getting the theatrical release he believes he deserves, those at SXSW will at least be able to experience it in a crowd before it lands on Prime Video soon after.
14. Yuni (Kamila Andini; March 22)
One of our favorite undistributed films...
15. Road House (Doug Liman; March 21)
While his recent output hasn’t touched the entertainment value of Edge of Tomorrow, The Bourne Identity, or Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Doug Liman seems quite confident in the crowdpleaser appeal of his Jake Gyllenhaal-led Road House remake. While he won’t be getting the theatrical release he believes he deserves, those at SXSW will at least be able to experience it in a crowd before it lands on Prime Video soon after.
14. Yuni (Kamila Andini; March 22)
One of our favorite undistributed films...
- 2/28/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
With its focus on looted African art, Mati Diop’s captivating, fabulistic documentary Dahomey confronts the reality of how modernity has been shaped by the West’s theft of cultural heritage. Named after the seat of power in the historical Kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin), the film narrates the 2021 return of 26 artifacts that France had stolen from the former kingdom when, after centuries of occupation and colonial meddling, it was finally conquered and ransacked in the 1890s. Since then, some 7,000 Beninese artworks, many of them taken directly from the royal palace, have been on display in French museums.
As in her last film, the fictional feature Atlantics, Diop concerns herself here with restoring a sense of enchantment to a world that no longer thinks of the dead—the past—as existing both materially and spectrally alongside the present. The film’s narrator, such as it is, is the spirit embodied...
As in her last film, the fictional feature Atlantics, Diop concerns herself here with restoring a sense of enchantment to a world that no longer thinks of the dead—the past—as existing both materially and spectrally alongside the present. The film’s narrator, such as it is, is the spirit embodied...
- 2/27/2024
- by Pat Brown
- Slant Magazine
Berlin has disgraced itself as both a festival and a host city. The trouble started months before the festival began, as it was announced last summer that Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian — who helped steer the world’s largest festival through the pandemic, and worked to maintain a measure of glitz and glamor while also displaying a curatorial precision that’s unheard of for an event of this size — would not be invited to return for the 2025 edition as part of a cost-cutting measure instituted by the German government.
That news anticipated a festival that would repeatedly fail to reconcile the realities of art and politics — or to even acknowledge its responsibility to try — at a time when pretending as if those two forces can be siloed away from each other feels delusional on its face (bonus irony: The Berlinale was first proposed by an American officer who felt an international...
That news anticipated a festival that would repeatedly fail to reconcile the realities of art and politics — or to even acknowledge its responsibility to try — at a time when pretending as if those two forces can be siloed away from each other feels delusional on its face (bonus irony: The Berlinale was first proposed by an American officer who felt an international...
- 2/26/2024
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Por segundo año consecutivo, Filmin distribuirá en España la ganadora del prestigioso Oso de Oro del Festival de Berlín 2024. © Filmin
Filmin se ha hecho con los derechos de distribución en España del documental “Dahomey”, dirigido por la actriz y cineasta Mati Diop, que ha sido galardonado este fin de semana con el Oso de Oro a la Mejor Película en el Festival de Berlín. El jurado de la Sección Oficial, presidido por Lupita Nyong’o y del que también formaba parte el director español Albert Serra, ha reconocido así el mérito de una película que aborda la descolonización de los museos occidentales y que documenta el viaje de vuelta al antiguo Reino de Dahomey (la actual Benín) de 26 obras de arte expoliadas por Francia y que hasta ahora se conservaban en Museo Quai Branly de París. En el foco de la película se pone a una de las piezas, una especie de deidad,...
Filmin se ha hecho con los derechos de distribución en España del documental “Dahomey”, dirigido por la actriz y cineasta Mati Diop, que ha sido galardonado este fin de semana con el Oso de Oro a la Mejor Película en el Festival de Berlín. El jurado de la Sección Oficial, presidido por Lupita Nyong’o y del que también formaba parte el director español Albert Serra, ha reconocido así el mérito de una película que aborda la descolonización de los museos occidentales y que documenta el viaje de vuelta al antiguo Reino de Dahomey (la actual Benín) de 26 obras de arte expoliadas por Francia y que hasta ahora se conservaban en Museo Quai Branly de París. En el foco de la película se pone a una de las piezas, una especie de deidad,...
- 2/26/2024
- by Marta Medina
- mundoCine
In 1953, Alain Resnais, Chris Marker, and Ghislain Cloquet produced Statues Also Die, one of the fiercest and most lucid indictments of white imperialism ever captured on film. Commissioned by the magazine Présence Africaine, it sought to dissect Western attitudes toward African art. The 30-minute short did not begin as an anti-colonial project but became one along the way, informed by the belittling treatment that antiquities from the continent had received across French cultural institutions since their plundering under colonial rule. Why, for a start, was African art routinely confined at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris––an ethnographic museum––while Greek or Assyrian pieces found their place at the Louvre? An arresting montage of statues and their visitors swelled into a much larger critique of the systematic oppression of Black culture and Black bodies, with a third act considering the exploitation of Black athletes and musicians in the States.
- 2/26/2024
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
The Match Factory has unveiled multiple distribution deals for its Berlinale competition titles Dying by Matthias Glasner and Architecton by Victor Kossakovsky.
Dying has secured distribution in key territories including France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media As), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film), and South Korea (Pancinema). Negotiations for additional territories are underway, with a UK deal already confirmed.
Dying, which stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg and Corinna Harfouch, won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for best screenplay, along with the...
Dying has secured distribution in key territories including France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media As), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film), and South Korea (Pancinema). Negotiations for additional territories are underway, with a UK deal already confirmed.
Dying, which stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg and Corinna Harfouch, won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for best screenplay, along with the...
- 2/26/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Match Factory has unveiled multiple distribution deals for its Berlinale competition titles Dying by Matthias Glasner and Architecton by Victor Kossakovsky.
Dying has secured distribution in key territories including France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media As), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film), and South Korea (Pancinema). Negotiations for additional territories are underway, with a UK deal already confirmed.
Dying, which stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg and Corinna Harfouch, won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for best screenplay, along with the...
Dying has secured distribution in key territories including France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media As), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film), and South Korea (Pancinema). Negotiations for additional territories are underway, with a UK deal already confirmed.
Dying, which stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg and Corinna Harfouch, won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for best screenplay, along with the...
- 2/26/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Match Factory has locked multi-territory deals on Berlinale titles Architecton by Victor Kossakovsky and Dying by Matthias Glasner, which picked up the festival’s Silver Bear for Best Screenplay.
Alongside the Silver Bear, Dying also picked up the Guild of German Arthouse Cinemas Prize and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award. The pic has sold to France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media As), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film), and South Korea (Pancinema). Match Factory has said negotiations for additional territories are underway, with a UK deal already confirmed. Deadline’s Stephanie Bunbury described the film as a “deep and darkly funny family drama.” The film stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg, and Corinna Harfouch.
Elsewhere, Kossakovsky’s Architecton has sold to me Spain (Caramel Films), Italy (Be Water), Benelux (Cherry Pickers Filmdistributie...
Alongside the Silver Bear, Dying also picked up the Guild of German Arthouse Cinemas Prize and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award. The pic has sold to France (Bodega Film), Italy (Satine Film), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Norway (Selmer Media As), Poland (Aurora), Cis (Provzglyad), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom Film), Hungary (Cirko Films), Greece (Cinobo), Romania (Freealize), Taiwan (Andrews Film), and South Korea (Pancinema). Match Factory has said negotiations for additional territories are underway, with a UK deal already confirmed. Deadline’s Stephanie Bunbury described the film as a “deep and darkly funny family drama.” The film stars Lars Eidinger, Lilith Stangenberg, and Corinna Harfouch.
Elsewhere, Kossakovsky’s Architecton has sold to me Spain (Caramel Films), Italy (Be Water), Benelux (Cherry Pickers Filmdistributie...
- 2/26/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s The Devil’s Bath and Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s My Favourite Cake have jointly topped Screen’s 2024 Berlin jury grid with an average score of 3.1.
See the final 2024 grid below.
The last three titles to land, Meryam Joobeur’s Who Do I Belong To?; Gustav Möller’s Sons; and Min Bahadur Bham’s Shambhala, could not unseat the duo after scoring 2.8, 2.1 and 2.4 respectively.
Who Do I Belong To? follows a Tunisian mother struggling to cope when her jihadist son returns from Syria. It earned two fours (excellent) from Die Zeit’s Katja Nicodemus and Meduza’s Anton Dolin,...
See the final 2024 grid below.
The last three titles to land, Meryam Joobeur’s Who Do I Belong To?; Gustav Möller’s Sons; and Min Bahadur Bham’s Shambhala, could not unseat the duo after scoring 2.8, 2.1 and 2.4 respectively.
Who Do I Belong To? follows a Tunisian mother struggling to cope when her jihadist son returns from Syria. It earned two fours (excellent) from Die Zeit’s Katja Nicodemus and Meduza’s Anton Dolin,...
- 2/26/2024
- ScreenDaily
Following on the heels of a successful post-pandemic reboot one year ago, the Joburg Film Festival kicks off its sixth edition on Feb. 27, with the glitzy capital of South Africa’s media and entertainment industry showcasing a selection of top talents from the host country and across the African continent.
The event opens with the world premiere of Gordon Main’s apartheid-era documentary “London Recruits,” a film that sheds light on a pivotal moment in the South African liberation struggle, and wraps March 3 with the premiere of “Snake,” a psychological thriller from veteran filmmaker Meg Rickards.
After returning to Johannesburg cinemas last year for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, this year’s edition looks to grow the event’s footprint, increasing the number of festival venues as well as the amount of films on offer, with a program that includes more than 60 titles from 30-plus countries.
The event opens with the world premiere of Gordon Main’s apartheid-era documentary “London Recruits,” a film that sheds light on a pivotal moment in the South African liberation struggle, and wraps March 3 with the premiere of “Snake,” a psychological thriller from veteran filmmaker Meg Rickards.
After returning to Johannesburg cinemas last year for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, this year’s edition looks to grow the event’s footprint, increasing the number of festival venues as well as the amount of films on offer, with a program that includes more than 60 titles from 30-plus countries.
- 2/26/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
By Elisa Giudici
Mati Diop and Lupita Nyong'o at the awards ceremony © Ali Ghandtschi / Berlinale 2024
There was a clear standout at the 74th annual Berlinale: French cinema. Given the competition lineup, France secured all three podium positions one way or another. Let's start with the Golden Bear, naturally. The jury, led by Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o, crowned a new documentary by French-Senegalese director Mati Diop (of Atlantics fame) as the winner. It's a double win for French cinema: not only is Diop a French citizen, but she's also a product of the Cannes Film Festival, a source of national pride.
Her winning documentary, Dahomey, is a low-budget project that might have struggled in the bright spotlight at Cannes... ...
Mati Diop and Lupita Nyong'o at the awards ceremony © Ali Ghandtschi / Berlinale 2024
There was a clear standout at the 74th annual Berlinale: French cinema. Given the competition lineup, France secured all three podium positions one way or another. Let's start with the Golden Bear, naturally. The jury, led by Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o, crowned a new documentary by French-Senegalese director Mati Diop (of Atlantics fame) as the winner. It's a double win for French cinema: not only is Diop a French citizen, but she's also a product of the Cannes Film Festival, a source of national pride.
Her winning documentary, Dahomey, is a low-budget project that might have struggled in the bright spotlight at Cannes... ...
- 2/25/2024
- by Elisa Giudici
- FilmExperience
Film about first major return of looted treasures to Africa beat the work of several veteran directors
Mati Diop’s documentary on the first major return of looted treasures from Europe to Africa beat several veteran directors to the top prize at the Berlin film festival.
The 41-year-old Senegalese-French director’s one-hour film, Dahomey, follows a hoard of 26 treasures on their 2021 return journey from Paris to Benin, from where they were looted by French forces almost a century and a half earlier.
Mati Diop’s documentary on the first major return of looted treasures from Europe to Africa beat several veteran directors to the top prize at the Berlin film festival.
The 41-year-old Senegalese-French director’s one-hour film, Dahomey, follows a hoard of 26 treasures on their 2021 return journey from Paris to Benin, from where they were looted by French forces almost a century and a half earlier.
- 2/24/2024
- by Philip Oltermann European culture editor
- The Guardian - Film News
The 74th Berlin Film Festival (also known as Berlinale locally) has wrapped its 2024 run following two weeks of screenings, with a big ceremony again in Berlin on Saturday evening, announcing the winner of the Golden Bear (Goldener Bär) for Best Film. That top prize from this year was given to yet another intriguing French documentary, this one titled Dahomey, directed by Mati Diop (of the film Atlantics previously). It follows the journey of 26 plundered royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey exhibited in Paris, now being returned to the original home of Benin in Africa. A French documentary also won the Golden Bear last year, too. Is this the hot trend now? The festival also awarded Sebastian Stan for Best Performance; along with Martin Gschlacht for Best Cinematography in the film The Devil’s Bath (Des Teufels Bad) - the latest from the Austrian co-directors of Goodnight Mommy and The Lodge previously.
- 2/24/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Dahomey won the Golden Bear Photo: Les Films Du Bal - Fanta Sy French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop took home the top prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival for her documentary Dahomey. The film considers the return of plundered artefacts to Berlin. It is the second year in a row a documentary has taken the Golden Bear after On The Adamant won last year.
The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize went to prolific South Korean director Hang Sang-soo for his tale of a French teacher (Isabelle Huppert) navigating a new life, A Traveler's Needs.
Bruno Dumont's spoof that transports a Star Wars-style plot to the French countryside, The Empire, won a Silver Bear, while Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias' experimental hippo drama Pepe won the Best Director prize. Matthias Glasner's Dying, which dives into the heart of a family with an ailing matriarch and patriarch, won Best Screenplay.
The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize went to prolific South Korean director Hang Sang-soo for his tale of a French teacher (Isabelle Huppert) navigating a new life, A Traveler's Needs.
Bruno Dumont's spoof that transports a Star Wars-style plot to the French countryside, The Empire, won a Silver Bear, while Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias' experimental hippo drama Pepe won the Best Director prize. Matthias Glasner's Dying, which dives into the heart of a family with an ailing matriarch and patriarch, won Best Screenplay.
- 2/24/2024
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Mati Diop’s documentary Dahomey, about artefacts being returned from Paris to present-day Benin, was awarded the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival tonight (February 24).
The film, handled internationally by Les Film du Losange, is the second from the African continent to take the Berlinale’s top prize after Mark Dornford-May’s musical U-Carmen eKhayelitsha in 2005. It is also the second year in a row that a documentary has clinched the Golden Bear, following Nicolas Philibert’s On The Adamant last year.
In her speech, Diop said: “To restitute is to do justice. We can...
The film, handled internationally by Les Film du Losange, is the second from the African continent to take the Berlinale’s top prize after Mark Dornford-May’s musical U-Carmen eKhayelitsha in 2005. It is also the second year in a row that a documentary has clinched the Golden Bear, following Nicolas Philibert’s On The Adamant last year.
In her speech, Diop said: “To restitute is to do justice. We can...
- 2/24/2024
- ScreenDaily
Winners have been announced at the 74th Berlin Film Festival, with Dahomey by French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop scooping the coveted Golden Bear for best film. Scroll down for the full list of winners, which were revealed Saturday evening at the Berlinale Palast.
The doc borrows its name from the former West African kingdom of Dahomey, located in the south of today’s Republic of Benin. It was founded in the 17th century by King Houegbadja. Under his reign and that of his descendants — a three-century dynasty — the kingdom was a considerable regional power, with a highly structured local economy, a centralized administration, a system of taxes, and a powerful army, including the famous Amazon women (Agodjié).
Diop’s doc opens in November 2021 as twenty-six royal treasures from the former Kingdom are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin. Along with thousands of others, these artifacts were...
The doc borrows its name from the former West African kingdom of Dahomey, located in the south of today’s Republic of Benin. It was founded in the 17th century by King Houegbadja. Under his reign and that of his descendants — a three-century dynasty — the kingdom was a considerable regional power, with a highly structured local economy, a centralized administration, a system of taxes, and a powerful army, including the famous Amazon women (Agodjié).
Diop’s doc opens in November 2021 as twenty-six royal treasures from the former Kingdom are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin. Along with thousands of others, these artifacts were...
- 2/24/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop made history at tonight’s Berlin Film Festival awards ceremony, becoming the first Black director ever to win the Golden Bear, the fest’s top prize, for her inventive, resonant documentary “Dahomey.” She accepted the award from Lupita Nyong’o, in turn the first Black person ever to preside over the festival’s Competition jury — a stark image of progress to cap off a ceremony marked by impassioned statements against war and social discrimination.
Following French docmaker Nicolas Philibert’s Golden Bear triumph last year with his film “On the Adamant,” “Dahomey” is the second consecutive nonfiction feature to take the award. But it’s a radically unorthodox winner nonetheless, beginning with its 67-minute running time. Yet Diop, the actor-turned-director who took the Grand Prix at Cannes 2019 with her fictional debut feature “Atlantics,” packs a world of historical and political perspective into her film’s tight framework,...
Following French docmaker Nicolas Philibert’s Golden Bear triumph last year with his film “On the Adamant,” “Dahomey” is the second consecutive nonfiction feature to take the award. But it’s a radically unorthodox winner nonetheless, beginning with its 67-minute running time. Yet Diop, the actor-turned-director who took the Grand Prix at Cannes 2019 with her fictional debut feature “Atlantics,” packs a world of historical and political perspective into her film’s tight framework,...
- 2/24/2024
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Dahomey, a documentary from French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop, has won the Golden Bear for best film at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival.
The multifaceted docu-fictional essay explores the return, in November 2021, of plundered royal treasures of the African Kingdom of Dahomey from Paris to the present-day Republic of Benin, examining the complicated response of those in Benin, whose culture has developed for more than a century without these artifacts.
While taking the stage to accept her award, Diop made a direct political statement, calling out, “I stand with Palestine!”
Jury president, the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actor Lupita Nyong’o, announced the Golden Bear winner from the stage of the Berlinale Palast Saturday night. Nyong’o is the first Black and first African to chair the Berlinale jury.
Dahomey is only the second African film to win the top prize at Berlin, following Mark Dornford-May’s...
The multifaceted docu-fictional essay explores the return, in November 2021, of plundered royal treasures of the African Kingdom of Dahomey from Paris to the present-day Republic of Benin, examining the complicated response of those in Benin, whose culture has developed for more than a century without these artifacts.
While taking the stage to accept her award, Diop made a direct political statement, calling out, “I stand with Palestine!”
Jury president, the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actor Lupita Nyong’o, announced the Golden Bear winner from the stage of the Berlinale Palast Saturday night. Nyong’o is the first Black and first African to chair the Berlinale jury.
Dahomey is only the second African film to win the top prize at Berlin, following Mark Dornford-May’s...
- 2/24/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mubi has acquired Mati Diop’s Berlin Competition entry Dahomey for North America, UK & Ireland, Latin America, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey and India.
‘Dahomey’: Berlin Review
Mubi plans a late 2024 release for Diop’s second feature and follow-up to her breakout 2019 Cannes Grand Prix winner Atlantics, which became Senegal’s Oscar submission and made the shortlist.
Dahomey takes place in November 2021 and chronicles the repatriation of 26 plundered royal treasures of the Kingdom of Dahomey to moder-day Benin more than 130 years after they were plundered by French colonial forces.
Eve Robin and Judith Lou Levy of France’s Les Films Du Bal produced,...
‘Dahomey’: Berlin Review
Mubi plans a late 2024 release for Diop’s second feature and follow-up to her breakout 2019 Cannes Grand Prix winner Atlantics, which became Senegal’s Oscar submission and made the shortlist.
Dahomey takes place in November 2021 and chronicles the repatriation of 26 plundered royal treasures of the Kingdom of Dahomey to moder-day Benin more than 130 years after they were plundered by French colonial forces.
Eve Robin and Judith Lou Levy of France’s Les Films Du Bal produced,...
- 2/23/2024
- ScreenDaily
The awards ceremony for the 74th Berlin International Film Festival kicks off Saturday night, where this year’s jury, headed by 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actress Lupita Nyong’o, will hand out the coveted Gold and Silver Bears.
Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s Iranian drama My Favourite Cake is being given good odds for an award this year. The drama, about a 70-year-old widow and her tentative attempts at romance with an age-appropriate taxi driver, was a critical fave. A win for the film would also send a political message after the Iranian government banned the directors from attending Berlin. If the jury picks out Cake for the Golden Bear it would be the third time in 10 years —following Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015) and There Is No Evil (2020) from Mohammad Rasoulof —that Berlin has given its top honor to Iranian directors in absentia. World sales for My...
Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s Iranian drama My Favourite Cake is being given good odds for an award this year. The drama, about a 70-year-old widow and her tentative attempts at romance with an age-appropriate taxi driver, was a critical fave. A win for the film would also send a political message after the Iranian government banned the directors from attending Berlin. If the jury picks out Cake for the Golden Bear it would be the third time in 10 years —following Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015) and There Is No Evil (2020) from Mohammad Rasoulof —that Berlin has given its top honor to Iranian directors in absentia. World sales for My...
- 2/23/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mubi has bought “Dahomey,” a highlight of this year’s Berlinale competition and directed by Cannes prizewinner Mati Diop (“Atlantics”), for North America, Latin America, U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey and India.
The feature film is represented in international markets by Films du Losange, which negotiated the deal with Mubi. “Dahomey” marks the sophomore outing of Diop, a French-Senegalese talent who is considered one of the leading figures in international arthouse cinema and of a new wave in African and diasporic cinema. Her feature debut, “Atlantics,” won the Grand Prize at Cannes in 2019, and went to win the Nation Board of Review Award, as well as nominations for a Critics Choice Award and Director’s Guild Award.
In “Dahomey,” Diop explores the issue of colonization through the story of precious artworks restituted to their country of origin, the present-day Republic of Benin after being plundered, along with thousands of others,...
The feature film is represented in international markets by Films du Losange, which negotiated the deal with Mubi. “Dahomey” marks the sophomore outing of Diop, a French-Senegalese talent who is considered one of the leading figures in international arthouse cinema and of a new wave in African and diasporic cinema. Her feature debut, “Atlantics,” won the Grand Prize at Cannes in 2019, and went to win the Nation Board of Review Award, as well as nominations for a Critics Choice Award and Director’s Guild Award.
In “Dahomey,” Diop explores the issue of colonization through the story of precious artworks restituted to their country of origin, the present-day Republic of Benin after being plundered, along with thousands of others,...
- 2/23/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy and Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
The 74th Berlin International Film Festival announced the winners of the fest at the awards ceremony held at the Berlinale Palast on February 24.
20 films competed for the awards in this year’s competition with Lupita Nyong’o heading the International Jury alongside Ann Hui, Christian Petzold, Albert Serra, Jasmine Trinca and Oksana Zabuzhko. The Encounters Jury, Lisandro Alonso, Denis Côté and Tizza Covi choose the winners for Best Film, Best Director and the Special Jury Award.
The Golden Bear for Best Film was awarded to Dahomey by Mati Diop. Emily Watson won The Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance for her role in Small Things Like These, while Sebastian Stan received The Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance in A Different Man. Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias was honored with The Silver Bear for Best Director for his film Pepe, and the Silver Bear Jury Prize went to Bruno Dumont for Empire.
20 films competed for the awards in this year’s competition with Lupita Nyong’o heading the International Jury alongside Ann Hui, Christian Petzold, Albert Serra, Jasmine Trinca and Oksana Zabuzhko. The Encounters Jury, Lisandro Alonso, Denis Côté and Tizza Covi choose the winners for Best Film, Best Director and the Special Jury Award.
The Golden Bear for Best Film was awarded to Dahomey by Mati Diop. Emily Watson won The Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance for her role in Small Things Like These, while Sebastian Stan received The Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance in A Different Man. Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias was honored with The Silver Bear for Best Director for his film Pepe, and the Silver Bear Jury Prize went to Bruno Dumont for Empire.
- 2/22/2024
- by Robert Lang
- Deadline Film + TV
Plans to restructure Germany’s national film and TV funding system are dividing the country’s film and TV industry.
Last week, Claudia Roth, Germany’s state minister for culture and the media, unveiled a three-point strategy for a revamped German Film Law (Ffg) to be accompanied by two new financial instruments of a tax incentive and an investment obligation.
The incentive scheme would replace the existing German Federal Film Fund (Dfff) and German Motion Picture Fund (Gmpf) which between them had provided around €166m in support to German and international projects in 2023, ranging from such international projects as Nine Perfect Strangers...
Last week, Claudia Roth, Germany’s state minister for culture and the media, unveiled a three-point strategy for a revamped German Film Law (Ffg) to be accompanied by two new financial instruments of a tax incentive and an investment obligation.
The incentive scheme would replace the existing German Federal Film Fund (Dfff) and German Motion Picture Fund (Gmpf) which between them had provided around €166m in support to German and international projects in 2023, ranging from such international projects as Nine Perfect Strangers...
- 2/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
Hong Sangsoo’s A Traveler’s Needs and Mati Diop’s Dahomey earned strong average scores on Screen’s Berlin jury grid, while Bruno Dumont’s The Empire divided critics.
A Traveler’s Needs stars Isabelle Huppert as a French woman teaching in Korea and is currently on an average of 2.9, with one score still to come (from Paolo Bertolin from cinematografo.it). Screen’s own critic awarded it four stars (excellent), while three critics gave it three stars (good) and three gave it two (average).
Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.
The score is currently slighter...
A Traveler’s Needs stars Isabelle Huppert as a French woman teaching in Korea and is currently on an average of 2.9, with one score still to come (from Paolo Bertolin from cinematografo.it). Screen’s own critic awarded it four stars (excellent), while three critics gave it three stars (good) and three gave it two (average).
Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.
The score is currently slighter...
- 2/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
Plunder Years: Diop Reflects on the Complex Realities of Reparation
The spirit of Ozymandias, the classic poem from Percy Bysshe Shelley, might rouse itself in one’s mind during Mati Diop’s short but passionate documentary Dahomey – “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Detailing the return of twenty-six artifacts from France to the Republic of Benin, which were among thousands plundered from the Kingdom of Dahomey by French colonialist troops in 1892, it’s a depiction of a journey with so much more going on beneath the surface than an exchange of cultural artifacts. Utilizing some effectively poetic and fantastical elements herself, Diop attempts to give voice to the past and marry it to the voices of the present, where it’s impossible to divorce oneself from the wreckage wrought by colonialism.…...
The spirit of Ozymandias, the classic poem from Percy Bysshe Shelley, might rouse itself in one’s mind during Mati Diop’s short but passionate documentary Dahomey – “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Detailing the return of twenty-six artifacts from France to the Republic of Benin, which were among thousands plundered from the Kingdom of Dahomey by French colonialist troops in 1892, it’s a depiction of a journey with so much more going on beneath the surface than an exchange of cultural artifacts. Utilizing some effectively poetic and fantastical elements herself, Diop attempts to give voice to the past and marry it to the voices of the present, where it’s impossible to divorce oneself from the wreckage wrought by colonialism.…...
- 2/19/2024
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
When Europe’s great powers raced to colonize a continent in the so-called “Scramble for Africa” just before the First World War, the tiny coastal Kingdom of Dahomey in the south of modern-day Benin, west Africa, was high on France’s shopping list. Only 85 French soldiers were killed when it was taken in 1894, while as many as 4,000 Dahomeans lost their lives. Nearly three hundred years of culture and history were extinguished, and thousands of the nation’s most valuable treasures shipped to Paris.
Mati Diop’s 67-minute documentary isn’t about the theft but rather the return in late 2021 of 26 Dahomean treasures to Benin from the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. We’re told before the movie starts that their “captivity” in France is finally coming to an end. That feels a little dramatic, but Diop means what she says. The most famous of the items, including a defiant...
Mati Diop’s 67-minute documentary isn’t about the theft but rather the return in late 2021 of 26 Dahomean treasures to Benin from the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. We’re told before the movie starts that their “captivity” in France is finally coming to an end. That feels a little dramatic, but Diop means what she says. The most famous of the items, including a defiant...
- 2/18/2024
- by Adam Solomons
- Indiewire
Somebody — or something — is speaking from inside a timber crate. “It’s so dark in here… a night so deep and opaque” read the subtitles; the voice is speaking in Fon, the local language of the West African country that was once called Dahomey and is now Benin. As the slats are nailed down, the voice is increasingly muffled; we are outside, but we are inside too, watching the light disappear.
This is the transport that will take a carved statue of Behanzin, king of Dahomey when the French army invaded in 1890, from the Musee Branly in Paris to Porto-Novo, capital of Benin. Around 7,000 works were looted from Benin in the years following the French conquest; in 2020, the French government ratified an earlier promise by President Macron to return 26 of them. Behanzin’s image, with its metal belt and bracelets and one arm raised in a warrior’s challenge, was on its way home.
This is the transport that will take a carved statue of Behanzin, king of Dahomey when the French army invaded in 1890, from the Musee Branly in Paris to Porto-Novo, capital of Benin. Around 7,000 works were looted from Benin in the years following the French conquest; in 2020, the French government ratified an earlier promise by President Macron to return 26 of them. Behanzin’s image, with its metal belt and bracelets and one arm raised in a warrior’s challenge, was on its way home.
- 2/18/2024
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
The first-ever edition of AfroBerlin put Africa in the spotlight at the Berlin Film Festival and in one key session asked how festivals, streamers, and the wider industry can — and should — support films and filmmakers from the continent.
AfroBerlin took over the conference center next to the European Film Market with standing room only for some sessions at the event, which was organized by Prudence Kolong’s consultancy biz Yanibes and the EFM.
Jacqueline Nsiah, a member of the Festival’s Selection Committee, spoke in a slot about empowering local filmmakers. She started her work for the Festival last summer and has bolstered its connections with the African film community. African films including Abderrahmane Sissako’s Black Tea, Mati Diop’s Dahomey, and Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Aria’s Pepe are in competition, and Mamadou Dia’s Demba is in the Encounters strand. “I think it’s not bad,...
AfroBerlin took over the conference center next to the European Film Market with standing room only for some sessions at the event, which was organized by Prudence Kolong’s consultancy biz Yanibes and the EFM.
Jacqueline Nsiah, a member of the Festival’s Selection Committee, spoke in a slot about empowering local filmmakers. She started her work for the Festival last summer and has bolstered its connections with the African film community. African films including Abderrahmane Sissako’s Black Tea, Mati Diop’s Dahomey, and Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Aria’s Pepe are in competition, and Mamadou Dia’s Demba is in the Encounters strand. “I think it’s not bad,...
- 2/18/2024
- by Stewart Clarke
- Deadline Film + TV
In November 2021, 61 years after Benin gained independence from the French empire, 26 of the many thousands of plundered national antiquities were returned by France to their African home. Inserting an inquisitive, imaginative intelligence into this key moment in the troubled timeline of post-imperial cultural politics, French-Senegalese director Mati Diop fashions her superb, short but potent hybrid doc “Dahomey” as a slim lever that cracks open the sealed crate of colonial history, sending a hundred of its associated erasures and injustices tumbling into the light.
The film takes its title from the kingdom on Benin’s Atlantic coast, that existed in formidable militarism for 300 years until 1894, and whose fabled female warriors were recently the subject of Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “The Woman King.” But “Dahomey” starts far from the pomp and grandeur of that wealthy, warlike kingdom, in the basement level of the Parisian Musée du Quai Branly, where CCTV cameras stare down at empty,...
The film takes its title from the kingdom on Benin’s Atlantic coast, that existed in formidable militarism for 300 years until 1894, and whose fabled female warriors were recently the subject of Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “The Woman King.” But “Dahomey” starts far from the pomp and grandeur of that wealthy, warlike kingdom, in the basement level of the Parisian Musée du Quai Branly, where CCTV cameras stare down at empty,...
- 2/18/2024
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Iranian tragicomedy My Favourite Cake has taken the early lead on Screen international’ s 2024 Berlin competition jury grid, with scores for seven titles now in.
The latest from Iranian duo Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha follows a 70-year-old woman who breaks out of her solitary routine by trying to invigorate her love life. It scored a strong 3.1 average, including three fours (excellent) from Ahmed Shawkey (Egypt’s filfan.com), Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) and Screen’s own critic.
Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.
Currently in joint second on the grid with...
The latest from Iranian duo Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha follows a 70-year-old woman who breaks out of her solitary routine by trying to invigorate her love life. It scored a strong 3.1 average, including three fours (excellent) from Ahmed Shawkey (Egypt’s filfan.com), Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) and Screen’s own critic.
Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.
Currently in joint second on the grid with...
- 2/18/2024
- ScreenDaily
“The first shape I had in mind for this film was fiction,” filmmaker Mati Diop told a Berlin Film Festival presser this morning when quizzed on the structure of her inventive documentary Dahomey.
The doc — which screens in the Berlinale competition this afternoon — borrows its name from the former West African kingdom of Dahomey, located in the south of today’s Republic of Benin. It was founded in the 17th century by King Houegbadja. Under his reign and that of his descendants — a three-century dynasty — the kingdom was a considerable regional power, with a highly structured local economy, a centralized administration, a system of taxes, and a powerful army, including the famous Amazon women (Agodjié).
Diop’s film opens in November 2021 as twenty-six royal treasures from the former Kingdom are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin. Along with thousands of others, these artifacts were plundered...
The doc — which screens in the Berlinale competition this afternoon — borrows its name from the former West African kingdom of Dahomey, located in the south of today’s Republic of Benin. It was founded in the 17th century by King Houegbadja. Under his reign and that of his descendants — a three-century dynasty — the kingdom was a considerable regional power, with a highly structured local economy, a centralized administration, a system of taxes, and a powerful army, including the famous Amazon women (Agodjié).
Diop’s film opens in November 2021 as twenty-six royal treasures from the former Kingdom are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin. Along with thousands of others, these artifacts were plundered...
- 2/18/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Launching in competition in Berlin, Mati Diop’s “Dahomey” traces the path of 26 royal treasures purloined by French soldiers in 1892 and restituted to the country of Benin in 2021. Moving from Paris to Cotonou, the inventive documentary allows the artifacts to speak for themselves, reflecting on their journey in Fon-language dialogue often set against an ethereal and evocative synthpop score.
Variety spoke with filmmaker ahead of her film’s world premiere.
You’ve described the project as a ‘fantasy documentary.’ What does the term mean to you?
“Documentary” wouldn’t be enough, “fiction” wouldn’t be quite right either, and I needed a term that captured the hybrid nature. I also liked this almost playful way of reconciling two cinematic imaginations that we don’t often associate with one another. This fantasy element does not stem from giving the statues a voice and allowing them to tell their own story – from an African point of view,...
Variety spoke with filmmaker ahead of her film’s world premiere.
You’ve described the project as a ‘fantasy documentary.’ What does the term mean to you?
“Documentary” wouldn’t be enough, “fiction” wouldn’t be quite right either, and I needed a term that captured the hybrid nature. I also liked this almost playful way of reconciling two cinematic imaginations that we don’t often associate with one another. This fantasy element does not stem from giving the statues a voice and allowing them to tell their own story – from an African point of view,...
- 2/18/2024
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
“When I heard that Emmanuel Macron had the intention to return the good that had been taken from colonial Africa, it was the very first time I realized that nothing was where it ought to be,” said Mati Diop of her documentary Dahomey, premiering at the Berlin Film Festival.
The doc tells the story of African art that was looted in the 19th century from the kingdom of Dahomey, following 26 artifacts that were taken back to Benin from France after French president Macron promised restitution in 2017. Among the returned works were statues of Dahomey’s former kings, King Glélé and King Béhanzin, and their throne. (The Kingdom of Dahomey was seen in Viola Davis’ historical epic The Woman King.)
“The question of returning these looted goods has always been at the heart of what I do as a filmmaker,” said Diop, via a translator, during a press conference in Berlin on Sunday.
The doc tells the story of African art that was looted in the 19th century from the kingdom of Dahomey, following 26 artifacts that were taken back to Benin from France after French president Macron promised restitution in 2017. Among the returned works were statues of Dahomey’s former kings, King Glélé and King Béhanzin, and their throne. (The Kingdom of Dahomey was seen in Viola Davis’ historical epic The Woman King.)
“The question of returning these looted goods has always been at the heart of what I do as a filmmaker,” said Diop, via a translator, during a press conference in Berlin on Sunday.
- 2/18/2024
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Africa’s growing screen industries are making their mark on this year’s Berlin Film Festival, with three titles in the main competition, but how to unlock the continent’s still-untapped potential was a question on the minds of many at a conference hosted on Saturday by the European Film Market.
A partnership between EFM and Prudence Kolong’s Stockholm-based consulting firm Yanibes, AfroBerlin was launched to give a platform to filmmakers from Africa and the diaspora and “to find a place where they can share stories and experiences and be heard,” said Kolong, who also organizes the Cannes Film Festival’s AfroCannes industry showcase.
The event brought together industry professionals from the continent with their counterparts in Europe and beyond, underscoring the ways in which the often-marginalized African screen industries have elevated their international profile. “When we’re talking about the global film market…we are part of the discussion,...
A partnership between EFM and Prudence Kolong’s Stockholm-based consulting firm Yanibes, AfroBerlin was launched to give a platform to filmmakers from Africa and the diaspora and “to find a place where they can share stories and experiences and be heard,” said Kolong, who also organizes the Cannes Film Festival’s AfroCannes industry showcase.
The event brought together industry professionals from the continent with their counterparts in Europe and beyond, underscoring the ways in which the often-marginalized African screen industries have elevated their international profile. “When we’re talking about the global film market…we are part of the discussion,...
- 2/18/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
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