<
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jul/16/the-odyssey-sahrawi-people-christopher-nolan-western-sahara>
"The simple act of holding a camera in my homeland of Western Sahara can be a
crime. When Sahrawi film-makers and journalists attempt to document everyday
life under Moroccan occupation, they can often end up in prison cells. For the
Moroccan regime, a camera in the hands of a Sahrawi threatens its official
narrative that Western Sahara is part of Morocco.
In contrast, when celebrated international names in the film industry wish to
capture an ideal picture for an epic journey, and decide that our land is
exotic enough to shoot the desired scenes, they are welcomed, escorted and
granted access by the same authorities that usually deny us that right.
This is the bitter and paradoxical reality in Western Sahara, an occupied
territory with many material and immaterial riches. While foreign extractors of
all kinds freely plunder Western Sahara’s phosphate minerals, sand, fish, and
tomatoes, and commodify our winds, sunlight and picturesque desert landscapes,
we the Indigenous Sahrawis are becoming a minority in our own homeland,
systematically marginalised, silenced and denied access to the land we roamed
as nomads for centuries.
The latest episode of this colonial drama stars the Christopher Nolan
blockbuster using parts of our occupied territory as a film set. Sahrawis are
aghast that scenes from
The Odyssey – an adaptation of Homer’s poem immersed
in themes of displacement, family separation, betrayal, and the agonising,
decades-long struggle to return home – were shot on our lands. The irony would
be comical were it not so tragic: we, the Sahrawi people whose land was used to
film parts of the
Odyssey, have been living our own brutal odyssey for more
than 50 years."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
