46
2
318 * 241
31/08/2012
17+
1895 – Diamanka, the last Amazon of Dahomey – once a ferocious warrior in the private guard of the deposed king Béhanzin – is rotting in the prisons of Cotonou. In order to escape and try to find her brother, she agrees to leave her native land to move to the park “Jardin d’acclimatation” in Paris. Exhibited along with other Dahomeyans, she performs for visitors obsessed with “the exotic”, participating in staged spectacles that flatter the French colonial forces. The Amazon’s beauty and charisma do not go unnoticed. They fascinate Fernand de la Filière, a doctor and amateur anthropologist who collects “curiosities” from around the world in his private cabinet. But Diamanka is unapproachable and untouchable: her virginity is a source of fierce pride, and marks her indissoluble bond with the decimated Amazon corpse. Ferdinand’s desire will prove destructive, for the doctor as well as for the warrior. The two begin a slow descent into a private hell…
