Review: In sharp documentary 'Dahomey,' African art returns home, but colonialism still stings

A long-silent voice from a distant past — eerie and reverberating — awakens in the climate-controlled, antiseptic chambers of a Paris museum.The forum through which this entity communicates to us is Mati Diop’s “Dahomey.” The French Senegalese filmmaker returns with a rich and absorbing exploration of the specter of colonialism that continues the enthralling, otherworldly quality of her 2019 breakthrough film, “Atlantics.” “Dahomey,” a formally inventive documentary, traces the journey across continents of 26 artworks looted from the West African Kingdom of Dahomey that, in 2021, were returned to the modern-day nation of Benin (also the birthplace of voodoo).

This repatriated collection represents a minuscule fraction of the 7,000 pieces the French pillaged from their former colony — and that number applies only to what they took from this one location among many.The voice emanates from the artifact labeled “26,” a statue of Dahomey’s King Ghézo.In a stacked sound of multiple voices speaking at once, the statue vocalizes grievances in its native Fon language (also known as Dahomean).

Poetic ruminations on imprisonment in a foreign land and yearning for a home that may no longer exist are supported by Wally Badarou and Dean Blunt’s entrancing synth score.Their alluring compositions sonically resemble the wonder of discovery with a hint of trepidation at the unknown.The other artifacts include a sculpture of heroic King Béhanzin (which one young man suggests should have had his own animated feature for Beninese children), another of King Glele and an asen or sinuka, an ornate object created to memorialize the dead.

Movies We’ve mapped out 27 of the best movie theaters in L.A., from the TCL Chinese and the New Beverly to the Alamo Drafthouse and which AMC reigns in Burbank.Nov.22, 2023At only 68 minutes, “Dahomey” brims with plenty of perspectives on what the restitution of these ancient treasures symbolizes and the dicey politi...