As the Sahrawi people celebrate the 50th anniversary of the creation of their government in exile, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and after two years of absence, the Western Sahara International Film Festival (FiSahara) returns to the Sahrawi refugee camps with its 19th edition. Walking to Our Land: The Radical Hope of Return explores the right of indigenous peoples to return to their land and struggles against the ongoing land-grabbing and enforced displacement carried out by Morocco against Sahrawis under occupation in Western Sahara and by other settler colonial powers in other territories. From April 27 to May 3, the heart of Ausserd refugee camp will transform into an improvised film and cultural festival with outdoor screens, a cultural fair and much more, hosting thousands of Sahrawis, visitors from over 20 countries and screening 25+ films.
Enshrined in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights as an inalienable right, the right to return is also part of the UN General Assembly’s Resolution 194 from 1948 and has been ratified 135 times since. However, this right is left out of political negotiations, such as the current ones on Western Sahara, with the argument that demographic and territorial changes inflicted over the ages are irreversible and incompatible with the return of exiled and forcibly displaced peoples.
FiSahara counters colonial narratives by placing the right to return at its epicenter and shedding light on struggles against settler colonial occupation of Sahrawis by Morocco, Palestinians by Israel and the Sami people by European powers. The films Haiyu and Mariem paying tribute to Sahrawi freedom singer Mariem Hassan, as well as Aminatou, Disonancia, Salam and We are Still Here, focus on violations in Western Sahara and the struggle for liberation and return, while the shorts Freedom in the Grip of Occupation and The Deadly Phantom by Sahrawi filmmaker Mohamed Dchira, made in the occupied Western Sahara, carry the urgency of clandestine filmmaking under Moroccan occupation.
FiSahara’s lens expands to Palestine with the feature All that’s Left of You by Cherien Dabis, the animated short Hide and Seek by Rami Abbas and the Forensic Architecture and Palestine Land Society film Return to Al-Ma’in that combines the lived memory of Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, a survivor, with FA’s novel methodologies to produce a 3D recreation of this Palestinian village destroyed by the Nakba. Sahrawi filmmaker El Hadj Ghedifa’s short film Between Sand and Olives reflects the union between Sahrawi and Palestinian activism through the journey of discovery of Palestinian journalist Hanaa Al Khatib’s when she visited the Sahrawi refugee camps during the Sahara Marathon.
The edition also focuses on Europe’s own settler colonial project in indigenous Sami lands with the screening of Iara Lee’s The Sami Song of Survival, as well the Armenian genocide and enforced displacement with Nata Moreno’s film Ara Malikian, a Life Among Strings, the story of violin virtuoso Ara Malikian’s personal and family story of survival and displacement; Malikian will also perform at the festival’s closing ceremony with Afro Cuban pianist Iván ‘Melon’ Lewis.
The festival’s roundtables will address cultural and land sovereignty, as well as the right to return, with Sahrawi agro engineer Taleb Brahim, Forensic Architecture‘s Assistant Director and researcher Samaneh Moafi, Sami filmmaker Johannes Vang, Progressive International‘s political coordinator Layla Hazaineh (Palestine), Palestinian filmmaker and activist Rami Abbas, activists from the occupied Western Sahara and filmmakers from the EFA Abidin Kaid Saleh film school in the camps.
The festival will also host filmmakers and performers from Spain including Fernando León de Aranoa, FiSahara co-founder Javier Corcuera, and actors Patricia López Arnáiz, Fariba Sheikhan, Almudena Salort, Críspulo Cabezas and Guillermo Toledo.
“Film and culture are FiSahara’s tools to dismantle colonial narratives that ignore the Right to Return”, said FiSahara’s Executive Director Maria Carrión. “They tell stories of resistance of indigenous peoples and their refusal to give up: the Sahrawi after a century of Spanish occupation and 50 years of Moroccan occupation, the Palestinian despite decades of British occupation and 75 years of Israeli settler colonialism, and the Sami who have faced centuries of occupation, land-grabbing and cultural repression in Northern Europe”.
“FiSahara’s role in shedding international light on the people of Western Sahara through film and culture is critically important” said Sahrawi diplomat Abdulah Arabi, Representative in Spain for the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi liberation movement. “The people of Western Sahara have the right to return to their territory, which has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975, and for this to happen they must freely exercise their right to self-determination and independence. The Sahrawi State is a reality: it has been carefully built and consolidated during these 50 years of exile. We ask for the full implementation of International Law and an end to Morocco’s occupation, which endangers regional stability”.
The Sahrawi food sovereignty and women’s empowerment project Cocina por el Cambio (Cooking for Change), whose training and catering programs unearth traditional Sahrawi recipes and use home-grown ingredients to move away from dependence on humanitarian aid, will offer the public tasting sessions during the event.
Immersion in Sahrawi Culture and Entertainment for Everyone
Films by the EFA Abidin Kaid Saleh film school, created in 2011 by FiSahara in Boujdour, will screen on FiSahara’s Desert Screen, and the school will hold an open doors day for the visiting public. Film is a new art embraced by youth to preserve and transmit their stories and culture.
Local Sahrawi and international audiences will enjoy an immersive experience into Western Sahara’s millennial culture in the women-led LeFrig Cultural fair, with a dozen large traditional tents embracing festival grounds, each depicting a different Sahrawi tradition such as poetry, music, dance, traditional games, the culinary arts and tea ceremonies. FiSahara’s trademark sunset concert in the sand dunes will feature Sahrawi groups Luali and Tirs, as well as the popular singer Mofid Ahmed. In the festival’s club building, the public will enjoy traditional dance classes and an arts fair. And at its closing ceremony, FiSahara will again bequest the winner for best film with the White Camel Award, Western Sahara’s symbol for peace.
Programming for kids will include Mini FiSahara animation screenings in collaboration with Miyu Distribution, a children’s filmmaking workshop, clown and acrobatics shows offered by Pallasos en Rebeldía and other children’s films including Oscar contender Robot Dreams.
Last but not least, FiSahara brings back its popular football match between visitors and the local Ittihad Sports Club.
