Key facts
- Sahrawi campaigners and filmmakers are calling for a boycott of Christopher Nolan's film, The Odyssey.
- The film was shot in Dakhla, a city in Morocco-occupied Western Sahara.
- Activists accuse the filming location of normalizing Morocco's occupation and ignoring the reality of human rights abuses.
- Sahrawi journalists documenting violations in Western Sahara have been imprisoned.
- The film's production reportedly received assistance from security services involved in suppressing local activists.
Sahrawi campaigners and filmmakers are urging a boycott of Christopher Nolan's new film, 'The Odyssey,' due to its filming in Dakhla, a city in Morocco-occupied Western Sahara. Critics argue that the decision to shoot in the territory normalizes Morocco's 50-year occupation and ignores the reality of human rights abuses faced by the Sahrawi people.
Mamine Hachimi, a Sahrawi journalist and filmmaker, stated that the boycott is a call for ethical responsibility, not an opposition to artistic freedom. He highlighted that Sahrawi journalists documenting violations in Western Sahara, such as his colleagues Abdallah Lhafaouni and Bachir Khadda, face imprisonment, with Lhafaouni serving a life sentence and Khadda a 20-year sentence.
Activists also point to the involvement of security services in facilitating the film's shoot, services that are accused of brutalizing Sahrawi campaigners. Moroccan Minister of Culture Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, however, expressed hope that the filming would increase Dakhla's visibility as a film location. Despite calls from various stars and activists, including Javier Bardem and Greta Thunberg, for the scenes shot in Dakhla to be removed, Nolan has remained silent, and his production company and Universal Pictures have not responded to requests for comment.
Mohamedsalem Werad, a Sahrawi documentary filmmaker, described the decision to film in occupied Western Sahara as not politically neutral, as it required operating with the permission of the occupying power. He believes a boycott is necessary to signal that filmmakers cannot overlook decisions that legitimize an occupation. Another filmmaker, Abidin Mohamed Hamudi, called the film's team complicit in the subjugation of Western Sahara, viewing Hollywood's actions as a grotesque manifestation of Western economies exploiting the Global South.
The Western Sahara International Film Festival (FiSahara), held annually in refugee camps in Algeria, has been a key proponent of the boycott. Maria Carron, FiSahara's executive director, stated that Nolan's team benefited from security services that suppress Sahrawi resistance and that using images of Western Sahara without the Sahrawi people's consent amounts to plunder.