The Sahara International Film Festival urges the winning director of Oscar Christopher Nolan not OdysseyIts executive director said Wednesday.
“We call Nolan to join the Saharawi people,” said Maria Carrion.
The Sahara International Film Festival (Fisahara) is held every year in Sahrawi refugee fields in Algeria. The American-British filmmaker, who won the Oscar for the best director to OppenheimerIt was recently, according to Moroccan media, in the city of Dakhla, in the west of Sahara, for Odysseywhich will be launched in 2026 with stars like Matt Damon and Zendaya.
The Moroccan Minister of Culture, Mehdi Bensaid, welcomed the media 24 site of the future benefits of this filming. “It is obvious that this film will give Dakhla more cinematographic visibility as a filming destination and not only tourism,” he said.
“Legitimize occupation and strengthen colonialism”
The West of Sahara, an old Spanish colony until 1975, was mainly controlled by Morocco but considered a non -autonomous territory by the United Nations. A conflict has opposed Morocco for 50 years to the separatists of the Polysario Front, with the support of Algeria.
“We had the feeling that the fact that Nolan is there, to light a sand dune, when there are so many other dunes in the world that they could have chosen, that they are not in occupied territory, they returned to legitimize the occupation and strengthen colonialism in the west of the Sahara,” said Maria Carrión.
Now that Christopher Nolan seems to have finished shooting in Dakhla, the festival Le Prese not to use the images already filmed.
“He did not obtain the Sahrawis agreement to film or use these images. He obtained the agreement of an occupation power, which does not constitute a real agreement,” Maria Carrion insisted, saying that he thinks that the director and his team had not been “correctly informed” of the context.
Rabat offers an autonomy plan under its sovereignty for this vast territory of the desert, which considers an integral part of the kingdom. The separatists of the Polisario Front continue to claim the possession of a self -determination referendum.
Source: BFM TV
