Some centuries-old Beninese treasures are returned by France, sparking debate over its neocolonial political posturing sublimating as cultural diplomacy as Diop’s quaint Berlinale Golden Bear-winning documentary highlights the dissonances inherent in this ‘homecoming’.
The first-ever film to be shot in an African language, Sembene’s landmark sophomore feature is a cultural experience to behold, and a gently comic satire about the bureaucratic hurdles a debt-ridden man has to undergo to cash in his money order.
Sembene the trailblazer led African cinema to international recognition with this landmark classic about the despair of a black Senegalese woman made to work for a white French family.
It does feel overreaching at times, but Mati Diop’s French-Senegalese first feature is a beguiling take on how tragedy can haunt the present.
Eternality Tan 