Mati Diop charts the return 26 of 7000 artifacts taken from the kingdom of Dahomey at the end of the 19th century. As one of tthe artifacts talks to us, we watch the artifacts boxed up, returned and put on display. At the same time we listen to a discussion about the meaning of the return by students and people visiting the exhibtion.
What is this doing on the main slate of the NYFF? This is not to say that the film is bad, it's not, rather it's simply similar to several other films about the the return of antiquities. I've seen this sort of thing before and Diop, outside of the spooky voiced statue, doesn't do anything new. Franklyit's a minor film from the director and doesn't need to be in the main slate spotlight.
To be fair the real problem is that the film feels rushed in being put together. It's a document of the return mixed with a group discussion. However having seen similar films I know there is so much more that could have been explored (more context of the events and history of the kingdom of Dohomey).
Worth a look, but you don't need to do a mad dash to the festival.
No comments:
Post a Comment