The Western Sahara International Film Festival (aka FiSahara), which takes place in Sahrawi refugee camps Algeria, was not pleased with Nolan’s choice of filming location. “Dakhla is not just a beautiful place with cinematic sand dunes. First and foremost, it is an occupied and militarized city whose Indigenous Sahrawi population is subjected to brutal repression by the Moroccan occupation forces,” the festival wrote in a statement urging Nolan, the film’s crew, and stars Matt Damon and Zendaya to “stop filming in Dakhla and stand in solidarity with the Sahrawi people who have been under military occupation for 50 years and who are routinely imprisoned and tortured for their peaceful struggle for self-determination.”
“By filming part of The Odyssey in an occupied territory classified as a ‘journalistic desert’ by Reporters Without Borders, Nolan and his team, perhaps unknowingly and unwittingly, are contributing to Morocco’s repression of the Sahrawi people and to the Moroccan regime’s efforts to normalize its occupation of Western Sahara,” FiSahara executive director María Carrión added. “We’re sure that if they understood the full implications of filming a high-profile movie in a territory whose Indigenous peoples are unable to make their own films about their stories under occupation, Nolan and his team would be horrified.”
Javier Bardem, who has previously attended FiSahara, also weighed in by reposting the festival’s statement on Instagram. “For 50 years, Morocco has occupied Western Sahara, expelling the Sahrawi people from their cities,” he wrote in his own caption. “Dakhla is one of them, converted by the Moroccan occupiers into a tourist destination and now a film set, always with the aim of erasing the Sahrawi identity of the city. Another illegal occupation, another repression against a people, the Sahrawi, unjustly plundered with the approval of Western governments, including the Spanish. #FreeSaharaNow.”
Universal did not immediately respond to The A.V. Club‘s request for comment on this story, but Nolan is likely on a pretty tight schedule that may or may not allow for a last minute location change. The Odyssey, which is set to open July 17 of next year, has already sold out its store of IMAX screening tickets.
