The Western Sahara International Film Festival issued a public statement last week urging the director to stop the filming of his adaptation of Universal Pictures of Homer’s poem.
The Odyssey will premiere in theaters on July 16, 2026.
Christopher Nolan He has been busy filming his epic 2026 film, The Odysseyin various parts of the world. But according to him Western Sahara International Film Festival (Fisahara)I would not be rolling in Dajla if I knew how Moroccan forces supposedly treat the indigenous population Saharawi.
Fisahara He issued a public statement last week urging the director to stop the filming of his adaptation of Universal Pictures of Homero’s poem, starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Logan Marshall-Green, Jon Bernthal and Charlize Theron.
Fisahara’s statement on the filming of Christopher Nolan’s odyssey
“Dakhla is not just a beautiful place with movie sand dunes. It is, above all, an occupied and militarized city whose Saharawi indigenous population suffers a brutal repression by the Moroccan Occupation Forces“The Festival announced last Tuesday.” They stop filming in Dakhla and manifest with the Saharawi indigenous people who have been under military occupation for 50 years and who are routinely and routinely tortured tortured by their peaceful fight for self -determination. “
“We are sure that if they understood all the implications of filming such a high profile film in a territory whose indigenous peoples cannot make their own films about their stories under occupation, Nolan and his team would be horrified,” the statement continued.
The Western Sahara International Film Festival is a member of the Human Rights Film Network and has hosted 18 editions.
“When filming part of ‘the Odyssey’ in an occupied territory, qualified as an ‘black hole’ by reporters without borders, Nolan and his team, perhaps without knowing it and unintentionallythey are contributing to the repression of the Saharawi people by Morocco and the efforts of the Moroccan regime to normalize their occupation of Western Sahara, ”said Fisahara’s executive director María Carrión.
“Morocco only allows the entrance to the occupied Western Sahara to those who fit their strategy of selling their occupation to the outside world: tourists who go to tourist complexes built and owned by Morocco to practice kitesurf, companies willing to participate in their looting of natural resources, journalists willing to follow their example and high profile visitors such as Nolan and his team, which They help Morocco spread the idea that Western Sahara is part of Morocco And that the Saharawis are made up of living under their domain, they receive a first treatment, ”Carrión added.
“But ask organizations such as Amnesty International, to the High position of Human Rights of the UN, Volker Turk, or the hundreds of journalists and observers who are prevented or deported entry into the territory, and will tell a different story.”
The Odyssey will premiere in theaters on July 16, 2026.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
