Berlin Dispatch – Dahomey / Dying

On the fourth day of the 74th Berlinale, the underwhelming competition showed some much needed signs of life with the one-two punch of French director Mati Diop’s dreamy documentary Dahomey and German director Matthias Glasner’s tragicomic familial drama Dying.

Clocking in at just 67 minutes, Dahomey provides a compact, thought-provoking look at the restitution of looted African art by former colonial powers. Specifically, the film chronicles the return of 26 artefacts by the French government to the Republic of Benin, formerly the Kingdom of Dahomey, in 2021. These statues and ornaments embody the heights of craftsmanship of an ancient African culture, yet find themselves kept on foreign soil for decades without permission. What does it mean to the Beninese today to see their ancestral art back home again? Why does it matter for artworks to be kept at their rightful place?

The film includes footage that captures the debates among Benin locals over the significance of the event. Through these discussions you gain perspective on the dimension of the loot (only 26 of over 7,000 stolen artefacts are returned) and see how these works inspire people to reflect on their heritage and the African fate. The discussions also reveal deeper issues of cultural colonization beyond simple theft. As one participant points out, the irony of being Beninese but only able to express opinions on France’s expropriation of their country’s past in French can’t be more obvious.

The most striking aspect of Diop’s approach to the film is her attempt to also give the artefacts themselves a voice. Cameras are placed inside the crates transporting them so the viewer can hear and feel their journey home. And at regular intervals, we would actually hear artefact no. 26, statue of a former king, reminisce about what it has witnessed over the centuries. Speaking its own language in a darkly ancient tone, the fearsome-turned-pensive voice-over brings an air of mysticism that takes the film to a whole new level.

It should also be noted that Diop’s remarkable sense of aesthetics – which dazzled me in her Cannes-winning debut – remains very much intact here. The way she frames, lights and shoots the African shores at night is so beautiful it borders on the magical. Towards the end of the film, when the mystic voice proclaims its eternity over shots of neon-lit waves letting out their timeless sighs, it’s hard not to be touched by something that feels primal and true. For its insightfulness, originality and visual poetry, Dahomey is a worthy contender for the Golden Bear.

Now a 3-hour film called Dying might seem like the pitch for a parody of German cinema, but Glasner’s latest is actually not quite what you’d expect. Yes, it resolves around people dying, but it’s mostly about refreshingly messy personal relationships and proves to be anything but depressing.

Of the Lunies family at the center of the story, we’re first introduced to Gerd (Jens Weisser) and Lissy (Corinna Harfouch). The old married couple lives in the countryside where both are coping with debilitating illnesses. They are clearly not close to their children Tom (Lars Eidinger) and Ellen (Lilith Stangenberg), who never seem to visit and hardly bother to call. We then meet Tom, a conductor rehearsing for the premiere of a piece written by his buddy Bernard (Robert Gwisdek). Meanwhile his sister Ellen, a free-spirited alcoholic going from man to man, is starting an extramarital affair with the dentist she works for. Altogether three deaths will reveal some hard truths about these people and what they really think about one aother.

For a solid two hours, Dying is this sharply observant, casually unsentimental portrait of a dysfunctional family. The characters come across as self-centered, cold and the opposite of caring but no one is seen in a villainous light. Even when someone dies, the film doesn’t get weepy, judge-y or conciliatory but brutally funny as it unearths the dynamics between a group of people who are supposed to love each other but simply don’t. This culminates in an extended scene featuring Lissy and Tom at the end of Act II that showcases some superlative screenwriting and -acting.

It’s a scene where the conversation between mother and son takes so many surprising turns you don’t know whether to laugh or feel uncomfortable. Prolific German actor Eidinger maps the vulnerability and rage of a resentful adult child with masterful restraint, while German stage and screen-acting titan Harfouch gets icily honest with line readings that could cut the thickest skin. It’s a tremendous joy to watch these two powerhouse performers go toe to toe like this and an acting prize for either would not be undeserved.

The last hour of Dying struggles to find the same level of sharpness so the whole thing doesn’t land on a high note. That said, I’m impressed overall by Glasner’s writing and the individual performances from this talented ensemble cast. With half of the competition titles now having screened, let’s just say there are not that many candidates for serious award consideration. Hopefully that will change with the second half.