A contemporary film maker of great standing, Mati Diop, has once again fascinated the world with her recent Documentary “Dahomey”. This heart-wrenching film’s focus is the African history retelling a story of twenty-six royal treasures from the kingdom of Dahomey and their return to their home country Benin. Being of French and Senegalese origin, Mati Diop has gained appreciations for her standalone practice where she intermingles fiction and documentary film making to alter the perceptions of the viewers and widen their scope. ‘Atlantics’, her first advertising feature, Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix Winner, a ghoulish story, consecutively received with ‘Dahomey’ the Golden Bear Award in Febrary, 2024. In “Dahomey”, Diop gives the example of how this writing can help “speak” the silent – co-operating with the Haitian writer Makenzy Orcel, they animate the inanimate and make such artifacts tell about losses and home sickness. The film does not just indulge the as a visual medium but it takes the viewer on a sensorial expedition, which oscillates around the concern of the colonial past, where the objects take us on a cross cultural and historical rediscovery of the significance of the objects.
As Dahomey becomes part of the Oscar race, it is an example of Diop’s conviction to pursue the art of storytelling that reveals unapologetic truths about the past and the future of our collective history.
Mati Diop is a French film director and actress, born in Paris on June 22, 1982. From Senegalese origins, this particularity of hers helped her shaped her stories and through them, came to ask questions about otherness and place.
| Bio | Detail |
|---|---|
| Birthdate | December 15, 1982 |
| Birthplace | Dakar, Senegal |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Film Director, Actress |
| Education | Sorbonne University, Paris |
| Net Worth | Estimation |
|---|---|
| Estimated Net Worth | $2 million (approx.) |
| Source of Wealth | Filmmaking, Acting |
| Residence | Paris, France |
| Other Properties |
| Top Works | Detail |
|---|---|
| Films | A Thousand Suns (2013) |
| Atlantics (2019) | |
| Television | The Heart of Africa (2016) |
| Category | Detail |
|---|---|
| Film | Grand Prix at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival (for Atlantics) |
| Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film (for Atlantics) | |
| Television | César Award for Best Documentary Film (for The Heart of Africa) |
Diop also attended schools Belgium’s Le Fresnoy National Studio and Le Pavillion at Paris’ Palais de Tokyo which has also shaped her style of filmmaking.
Diop was born to an artistically active family. Her father is a famous Senegalese musician Wasis Diop, and her uncle is the film director Djibril Diop Mambéty. Such a family background has probably helped her in developing her artistic sense and in selecting her subjects.
Mati Diop seeks being an auteur, with her stories appealing to specific audiences – those that render and heal, transform perceptions and bridge differences in culture. It is obvious that her multilingualism, extensive knowledge of classifying literature and making passageways in films serves a purpose in modern cinema. Her experience proves the ability of art to cross borders and remain relevant.
Perhaps it is appropriate to note that Diop is a transnational filmmaker and has repeatedly explored the topic in her works. She has been travelling, residing and working between France and Senegal, working with her roots and discovering how she can interpret her background through the lens of her work.
Diop’s films often contain investigations into relationships and attraction suggesting that she has some insight and contemplation about the issue.
Diop’s career started in 2004 when she made her first short film ‘Last Night’ which was to be the first of many that she would direct. A feature film followed and made Diop acclaimed at the international level, ‘Atlantics’, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and made her the first black woman ever to compete at the festival.
Among her top works are still “Atlantics”, the Grand Prix of Cannes winner and “Dahomey”, the one-dimensional cinematographic piece that captured the Golden Bear of the Berlin International Film Festival. All these works developed in her allow combining personal ideas with wider social issues.
She was able to uplift the borders and center the African story to the global canvass and the audience, hence making the film industry more broad and diverse.
“Atlantics” and “Dahomey” are two of Diop’s films that cover a range of genres from romance to highly-politicized and social issues with a surreal and poetic style. She seems to redefine the idea of commercial filmmaking and for this reason, is regarded as one of the most creative filmmakers of her generation.
Diop’s first work as a director was in her short “Last Night” in 2004, and international recognition followed with the short “Atlantiques”, released in 2009 and awarded the Tiger Award for Short Films at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Diop was directed stars in her uncle’s important film ‘Touki Bouki’ an actor Magaye Niang. It was released in 2013 in the form of a documentary short called Mille Soleils.
In 2019, Diop became the first black female director to premiere her film “Atlantics” within the competition at the Cannes Film Festival, winning the Grand Prix that year. The motion picture was fictionalized reconstruction of Amit Gras’s short documentary “Atlantics” which vividly depicted a harrowing journey made by two senegalese friends in a desperate attempt to migrate to Europe by risky sea voyage. Later, “Atlantics” was acquired by Netflix and thus she had wider outreach.
She made the Golden Bear by presenting her second feature released documentary titled ‘Dahomey’ at the 2024 Berlin International Movie Festival. This documentary is about the return of 26 objects seized by France in the Dahomey of the 1800s back to their original place in 2021. Now Benin, from the Muse e Du Quai Branly. This made Diop the first Black woman to win the award since its creation.
However, her film-making impact is not limited to what she has done as a director, as Diop is also an actress known to have starred in the drama film “35 Shots of Rum” (2008). Due to her versatile career, the influence of her works has made her a relevant person in modern cinema, who is still being emulated and whose works are still alive. The records of her accomplishments showcase her skills and the art of narrative that knows no boundaries and is universally acceptable.