Dahomey

media release: France, Senegal | 2024 | DCP | 68 min. | French with English subtitles

Director: Mati Diop

After a century in France, 26 royal treasures plundered from the Kingdom of Dahomey return to their African home in present-day Benin. Atlantics director Mati Diop’s visionary documentary considers this act of repatriation from myriad perspectives, including, in a surreal touch, that of the statues themselves. Dahomey’s captivating centerpiece is a wide-ranging debate among Beninese university students about whether the return of a handful of thousands of stolen artifacts constitutes progress or an insult. Diop’s uniquely inquisitive and instructive film won the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival.

The Premieres series returns with more early and exclusive looks at the very best in current arthouse cinema! This fall kicks off with Sebastian Stan in A Different Man, one of the best films from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, screening at the Cinematheque nearly a month before it hits theaters. For a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience, don’t miss Eno, a documentary portrait about the iconic musician which is digitally reconfigured every time it screens—the version you’ll see here on October 10 will never be shown again. Plus: wild new entertainments by boundary-pushing favorites Don Hertzfeldt, Harmony Korine, and Quentin Dupieux; equally adventurous and riveting nonfiction works by Mati Diop and Johan Grimonprez, and much more! This series was made possible by a generous donation from an anonymous cinephile.