Festival asks boycott of “The Odyssey”: “Pisa international law”

“ Qwhen Christopher Nolan walks the red carpet for the premiere, he will also be stepping on international law, in particular the right of the Sahrawi people to their territory and their resources, which are illegally exploited by Morocco,” FiSahara’s executive director, Maria Carrion, said in a statement.

The Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony until 1975, is considered by the United Nations a non-autonomous territory. For 50 years the territory has been the scene of a conflict between Morocco and the liberation movement Polisario Front, supported by Algeria. Morocco considers the Western Sahara an integral part of its territory.

Adaptation of Homer's epic, "The Odyssey", whose debut is scheduled for this summer, the film was partially filmed in Dakhla, Western Sahara. The cast brings together several prominent names, including Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya and Charlize Theron.

In the statement, the Sahara International Film Festival calls for “a general boycott by the public, after Christopher Nolan chose the city of Dakhla [...] as one of the filming sites”.

Last year, FiSahara had already urged Christopher Nolan not to use the footage filmed in Dakhla.

Cited in the statement released today, Spanish actor Javier Bardem, who produced a documentary on Western Sahara in 2012, said he encouraged Christopher Nolan “to inform himself about the history of the repression by the Moroccan regime against the Sahrawi people.”.

FiSahara, which is held annually in Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria, is a festival dedicated to human rights.

The event organizes projections of films and cultural workshops and seeks to raise awareness of the international community for the conflict in Western Sahara.