THE ODYSSEY: REVERSE COURSE AFTER FILMING IN MOROCCO-OCCUPIED WESTERN SAHARA

The Western Sahara International Film Festival (FiSahara), joined by artists, solidarity organizations and human rights groups, calls on Universal Pictures, Syncopy and Christopher Nolan to break their silence regarding why they chose the Morocco-occupied city of Dakhla in Western Sahara as location to film scenes for the film The Odyssey. After being contacted by so many journalists for a response, it is clear that they are no longer unaware about the Moroccan illegal occupation. Sahrawi filmmakers, journalists and human rights defenders under Moroccan occupation deserve to know what happened.

Mr. Nolan filmed there without the consent of the Sahrawi people. The only consent he received came from the occupier of the land: Morocco. Dakhla and Western Sahara are not currently the dream location Mr. Nolan envisions for his film. The truth is:

  • Morocco invaded Western Sahara in 1975, expelling the Sahrawi people from their land, who were forced to flee into the desert and were bombarded with white phosphorous and napalm by Moroccan and French airplanes in an occupation that was supported by the United States. Hundreds remain disappeared.
  • Sahrawis have waited patiently for half a century to be allowed to freely express their will in an UN-sponsored referendum on self-determination. Morocco and Western powers have prevented this referendum from taking place. Meanwhile, families languish in refugee camps and under occupation, separated by the world’s second longest separation wall.
  • Sahrawi people are represented by their government in exile, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and by the Polisario Front, which is recognized as its representative by the United Nations and the European Court of Justice.
  • Freedom House only gives Western Sahara 4/100 points in its annual freedom index. However, The UN peacekeeping mission does not have a human rights mandate, something unique in the world.
  • Morocco has turned Dakhla into a resort, just as Netanyahu intends to do with Gaza, a site for kitesurfing, cultural events (including a festival that mimics FiSahara), conferences, renewable energy projects used to greenwash the occupation, etc.

As FiSahara said in its first statement, Nolan and his team may have unknowingly and unwittingly contributed to the repression of the people of Western Sahara, helping to normalize Morocco’s brutal occupation. For this reason:

  • We ask Mr. Nolan and the studio/companies involved in The Odyssey for publicly acknowledge that they should not have filmed scenes in Dakhla, and to either not edit them into the film or to get consent to do so from the Sahrawi people.
  • We invite Mr. Nolan and his team to directly engage with at-risk human rights defenders, filmmakers and journalists who can give him a first-hand account of their situation and to use their powerful platform to shed light on the critical situation of Sahrawis under Moroccan occupation and those living in extreme conditions in the refugee camps in Algeria, where FiSahara takes place.
  • We invite Mr. Nolan and his team to our next edition of FiSahara, to be hosted by a Sahrawi family, watch films at Sahara Desert and witness the reality of the Sahrawi people.
  • We hope that no other film company, nor cultural project, will consider operating in the occupied territory of Western Sahara. Our eyes will be on them.

 

(1,134 signatories, including those whose names wish to remain private)