The second annual Albertine French Film Festival is now in full swing at the University. Last year, the festival’s inaugural week showcased a sweeping selection of contemporary French films at the Wasserman Cinemateque free of charge. Now in its second run, the festival presented by the French and Francophone Studies Program of the Department of Romance Studies spotlights even more French films, each of which pack a strong cultural punch. The festival began on Friday, Oct. 17, with the dark yet vibrant film “Disco Boy” (2023), providing the festival’s “Spotlight on Drama.” This week, the festival moved on to its “Spotlight on Documentary” with the haunting one-hour documentary “Dahomey” (2024), directed by Mati Diop. With a restrained and dreamlike meditation on colonialism and the effectiveness of restitution, this film follows 26 stolen royal treasures of the Kingdom of Dahomey as they are returned from Paris to their country of origin, the modern-day Republic of Benin.

In 1892, French colonial troops invaded the African Kingdom of Dahomey, robbing them of around 7,000 artifacts. After being locked away in the Parisian Musée du Quai Branly for decades, the spoils were finally returned to their home in 2021. There are still, of course, some unsavoury elements to this seemingly triumphant return: Of the thousands of priceless treasures stolen away from the people of Dahomey, only 26 were returned. The Republic of Benin is no longer the rich, formidable kingdom it used to be. Even as a celebratory parade has citizens singing cultural songs for the return of their artifacts, the nation continues to suffer the aftershocks of colonialism and struggles to understand how they should accept the returned treasures.

“Dahomey” refuses to offer a straightforward answer; instead, the film compels its audience to think, to sit in the uncertainty and even to mourn at times. Even amidst mundane shots of museum workers packing the artifacts away and shipping them off, there exists a degree of atmospheric discomfort, most of which stems from the artifacts themselves which are figuratively and literally given a voice. The deep, distorted echoes of the 26 returned treasures sound like thousands of voices combined. They haunt the narrative by speaking on the horror of being taken from their land and by calling out the hypocrisy of the French government’s half-hearted restoration efforts. The back half of the documentary features a crowd of Benin citizens holding a spirited debate on the return of the artifacts. Diop expertly uses this debate to prioritize Beninist voices and bring several different points of view to the forefront — some celebrate the return while others call it “a savage insult” — all while never deciding which one is “correct,” because none of them are. Despite this victory for the Kingdom of Dahomey, the after-effects of colonialism are something that will continue to be felt for years to come.

The Albertine French Film Festival will continue into March 2026. The rest of the film lineup includes 2024’s “When Fall Is Coming” (Oct. 30), 1969’s “Army of Shadows” (Feb. 27), 2024’s “Ghost Trail” (March 5) and 2024’s “Meeting with Pol Pot” (March 12). All films are free to watch in the Wasserman Cinemateque.