Algerian Radio
BIR LEHLOU (Liberated Territories) - The film "The Odyssey" by British director Christopher Nolan is facing boycott calls from Sahrawi activists and filmmakers, who denounce the filming of a portion of this Hollywood production in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.
Human rights defenders criticize the director for filming scenes in the occupied Dakhla region, in the south of Western Sahara, without taking into account the political and legal context of the territory.
"By using these images filmed in Western Sahara, Christopher Nolan has made himself complicit in the Moroccan occupation," said Maria Carrion, executive director of the International Western Sahara Film Festival (FiSahara), as quoted by Democracy Now!.
According to her, the filming, discovered a year ago by Sahrawi activists, took place in the White Dune area of occupied Dakhla.
She indicated that appeals had been sent to the film crew and the production company, calling for an end to the filming and the removal of scenes shot in this region.
The FiSahara official also denounced what she described as a "cultural genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" targeting the Sahrawi people, asserting that the occupied city of Dakhla is seeing large-scale economic and tourism projects in a context marked, according to her, by the exclusion of local populations.
For his part, Sahrawi filmmaker Abidin Mohamed Hamudi stated that this situation illustrates "how the Western world uses discourses on human rights and democracy according to its interests."
Speaking from Sahrawi refugee camps, the director noted that it is impossible for him to return to his hometown of Dakhla, while the film crew was able to access it for filming.
"Respecting international law and United Nations resolutions, and allowing the Sahrawi people to exercise their right to self-determination" remain the primary demands of the Sahrawis, he indicated.
Sahrawi activists are now calling on the public to boycott the film and to prioritize productions dedicated to the situation in Western Sahara, a territory listed since 1963 on the UN list of non-self-governing territories.
