The Berlinale Golden Bear was awarded to a film about the return of cultural property from the Kingdom of Dahomey

Mati Diop wins top award for documentary with talking treasures

The 74th Berlin Film Festival ended on February 24. Its main Golden Bear award went to the documentary film “Dahomey” by French-Senegalese director Mati Diop, which told about the return of once exported works of art of the kingdom of Dahomey by French museums to Benin. The winner spent a long time reading from her phone screen a prepared speech on the topic of the day and expressed words of support for Palestine. She dedicated most of her long speech to her historical homeland, Senegal, advocating for its freedom and the elimination of the consequences of colonialism.

In 2019, Diop received the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival for the feature film “Atlantics” – modest in terms of artistic discoveries, but full of exoticism. And in Berlin in 2023, the Golden Bear was awarded to the documentary film “On Adamant” by French director Nicolas Philibert, dedicated to a Parisian psychiatric clinic and people with developmental disabilities. Diop’s film runs just over an hour. Treasures, having arrived home in boxes, begin to speak. So far, only 26 artifacts have been returned. The rest, and there are thousands of them, are waiting in the wings.

The South Korean film “The Needs of a Traveler” by Hong Sang-soo, starring Isabelle Huppert, received the Grand Prix. This is their third collaboration after Claire’s Camera and In Another Country. It’s funny that the director asked the jury a question on stage: what exactly was he given the prize for? He became a star at the Berlinale. Over the past four years, Hong Sang-soo has received the Grand Prix for “A Writer’s Film,” “Silver Bears” for best script for “Introduction,” and for directing for “The Woman Who Ran.”

Nelson Carlos de Los Santos Arias from the Dominican Republic was awarded for directing, presenting the film “Pepe,” in which the now deceased hippopotamus speaks, and through his eyes the audience looks at what is happening. The main character did not survive in the private zoo of a Colombian drug lord and now tells the story of his unfortunate fate.

“Empire” by French master Bruno Dumont, which parodied “Star Wars” in the setting of a fishing village in northern France, received the jury prize. “Death” by German director Matthias Glasner and starring Lars Eidinger was awarded for best screenplay written by Glasner.

Prizes for the best acting work, and now there is no division into male and female roles, nevertheless, were received by representatives of different sexes. The award was expected to go to Cillian Murphy for his role as a coal miner in Tim Milant’s Little Things Like This, as he is now at the top. And no one argues that he is a first-class actor, which professionals have known for a long time. However, two “Silver Bears” were received by Emily Watson for her role as the abbess of the monastery in “Such Little Things” and the American Sebastian Stan, who played the main role in the film “The Other Man” by Aaron Shimberg. But Murphy did not lose out. He just received an Actors Guild of America award for his role as Oppenheimer in the film of the same name and is confidently on his way to winning the Oscar.

“My Favorite Cake” by Bekhtash Sanaihi and Miriam Moghaddam (Iran-Sweden-Germany-France) about the late meeting of a Tehran resident with her lover was awarded a FIPRESCI award. The directors never came to Berlin. They were not released from Iran. The actors brought their portrait onto the stage.

The jury was headed by Kenyan-born Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong’o, known for the films “12 Years a Slave,” “Black Panther,” “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Sunrise”. She looked like a panther on stage – flexible, beautiful. Her face, hair, open shoulders were sprinkled with sparkles, and her whole body shimmered. Against the background of some of the jury members, who resembled skiers, and the laureates, who seemed to have randomly walked in from the street, she looked like a goddess. Apparently, the Berlinale has finally said goodbye to the dress code. But not so long ago, even festival participants were not allowed onto the star trail if they deviated from the protocol. Something similar happened with the actors Sergei Puskepalis and Grigory Dobrygin, who came to democratically present the film “How I Spent This Summer” by Alexey Popogrebsky. And now everything is simple and everyday. Except that directors and jury members Albert Serra and Christian Petzold and the artistic management of the festival strictly adhered to the festival rules, and it was beautiful.