The Golden Bear winner at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, Dahomey sees actress-turned-director Mati Diop follow up her acclaimed debut Atlantics with a riveting, wonderfully idiosyncratic documentary that passionately addresses the repatriation of plundered artefacts. Taking place in 2021, the film is set between Paris and the modern-day Republic Of Benin (formerly the Kingdom Of Dahomey) and focuses on the return of 26 African treasures, stolen by French troops during the region’s colonial period. It combines a discreet, fly-on-the-wall style, which quietly observes the careful process of tagging, removing, boxing and unboxing these priceless objects, alongside some more audacious, artful and interrogatory elements.

Item number 26, a statue of King Ghézo, plays a significant part in the film. Given powerful voice by the Haitian writer Makenzy Orcel, Ghézo describes outrage at his ordeal (the indignity, disorientation and dehumanisation) which corresponds more widely to the horrors of slavery (‘my head is still assailed by the rattle of chains’, he cries at one point). Alongside striking images of billowing flags and contrasting cultures, Diop includes a thought-provoking discussion by students from the University Of Abomey-Calavi that takes in a wide spectrum of opinion on what the return of these objects means politically, culturally and emotionally.

Dahomey gives us a window into some fascinating history, fleshing out the traditions of the land depicted so vividly in recent US feature The Woman King which was set just before the period in question. It also asks broader questions about cultural theft and appropriation: the British Museum’s continued possession of Greece’s Elgin Marbles is, of course, a debate that still rages. Clocking in at just 67 minutes, this is accessible, stimulating filmmaking, demonstrating an appetite for justice and a keen artistic eye.

Dahomey is in cinemas from Friday 25 October.