The repatriation and restitution of art and cultural materials is a hot topic these days. A prime example is estates trying to reclaim objects taken by the Nazis or sold by Jews under duress as they fled Germany. But there’s another example closer to home.

Montrealer Joanna Robertson and Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond’s absorbing new documentary So Surreal: Behind the Masks explores what happened to Yup’ik and Kwakwaka’wakw ceremonial masks taken from these indigenous tribes in Alaska and British Columbia’s northwest coast more than a century ago by traders, government officials and collectors.

The masks were brought as far as New York, where they inspired some of the great European surrealist artists, who were living in exile mid-century, and eventually made their way to auction houses, world-famous museums and private collections.

Leading us on an investigative journey to learn the significance of these masks, the circumstances of their removal and where they ended up is Diamond. He appears........

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