Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" Faces Boycott Calls over Filming in Occupied Western Sahara

Guests - María Carriónexecutive director of FiSahara. - Abidin Mohamed Hamudifilmmaker from Western Sahara. Hollywood’s blockbuster adaptation of the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey premieres around the world today amid growing calls for a boycott. Human rights campaigners are criticizing director Christopher Nolan over his decision to film part of the film in Western Sahara, a vast territory in northwestern Africa that Morocco has occupied for the past half-century. “This occupying force is practicing cultural genocide against the Sahrawi people, ethnic cleansing,” says María Carrión, the executive director of the Western Sahara International Film Festival. “By staying silent for one year and then using this footage, Nolan has basically become an accomplice to Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara.” Abidin Mohamed Hamudi, a Sahrawi filmmaker speaking to Democracy Now! from Algeria, says he cannot return to his home in Western Sahara, but Nolan “can just go there and film and be complicit in the occupation of my homeland.” He calls it “a metaphor of how the Western world uses human rights, democracy narratives whenever they want, and then ignore it in other parts of the world.” Transcript AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Hollywood’s blockbuster adaptation of the ancient Greek poem The Odyssey premieres on movie screens around the world today amidst growing calls for a boycott. Human rights campaigners are criticizing director Christopher Nolan over his decision to film a part of the film in Western Sahara, a vast territory in northwestern Africa that Morocco has occupied for the past half-century. This is a trailer for The Odyssey. It features scenes that are believed to have been filmed in the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. ATHENA: [played by Zendaya] Odysseus, don’t you remember? Thunder. Fire. Death. ODYSSEUS: [played by Matt Damon] I remember. AMY GOODMAN: The trailer, a part of it, for The Odyssey. Sahrawi campaigners and filmmakers are demanding a boycott. Earlier this month, they held a protest during the London premiere of The Odyssey. PROTESTER 1: Free, free Sahara! PROTESTER 2: Shame! Shame! PROTESTER 1: Free Sahara! PROTESTER 2: Shame! PROTESTER 3: Shame! PROTESTER 1: Free Sahara! PROTESTER 2: Shame! PROTESTER 1: Free Sahara! AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by two guests. María Carrión, former Democracy Now! producer, she lives in Madrid, Spain. She’s executive director of FiSahara, the Sahara International Film Festival. And Abidin Mohamed Hamudi, filmmaker from Western Sahara, born and raised in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. He’s part of Saharawi Voice, a collective of Sahrawi filmmakers and journalists. María, let’s begin with you. If you can talk about how you found out about the making, where part of the film was made, and your efforts to reach out to Christopher Nolan? MARÍA CARRIÓN: Yes. We found out exactly one year ago. Some activists from Dakhla, which is in southern Western Sahara, alerted us to the fact that Christopher Nolan and his team were in Dakhla, in the White Dune, filming part of the movie. As a result, we asked them to leave. We asked Universal to stop the shoot and Nolan to leave with his team. However, instead of leaving, Nolan, well, he was first photographed with the Moroccan minister of culture, Mehdi Bensaid. Then the Moroccan minister of culture went on to say that this shoot was going to be just what Morocco needed in order to promote Dakhla as a filming destination, in addition to it being a tourist destination. Now, this occupying force is practicing cultural genocide against the Sahrawi people, ethnic cleansing, especially in Dakhla, where people are being routinely ousted from their homeland. And it’s the site of megaprojects: a big port, resorts, wind farms, agriculture, roads. And so, by staying silent for one year and then using this footage, Nolan has basically become an accomplice to Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, the real odyssey being that of the Sahrawi people, who for 50 years have tried to liberate their homeland. They are separated by a wall. As you’ve covered extensively in Democracy Now!, the people in Western Sahara are repressed, arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned. There’s actually a Sahrawi prisoner now, political prisoner, on hunger strike, facing death. And the only thing he wants is to be released, as the United Nations has called for him to be, along with all of his — the other political prisoners from the Gdeim Izik protest camp. And his name is Naâma Asfari, and he is fighting for self-determination in Moroccan prison. So, what we’ve done is, first, we called for them to leave, then for them not to edit the scenes into the film. And now that the film has been released and clearly they have used these stolen images from Dakhla, we’re calling on a campaign by the public not to go see the film, and instead watch films about Western Sahara and become aware that it’s an occupied territory, also supported by the Trump administration. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I’d like to ask Abidin Mohamed: How did Donald Trump’s, President Trump’s 2020 decision to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara as part of the Abraham Accords pave the way for Universal Pictures and Christopher Nolan to do this filming in Western Sahara? ABIDIN MOHAMED HAMUDI: I mean, to be honest, we were very surprised, because the United States was respected widely, and especially at the United Nations, for their stance of respecting international law. And the sudden decision really surprised all of us. And I think that, as you have mentioned, it has opened the door to all these international companies, because if the government that claims to be a reference worldwide for respecting human rights, for respecting democracy, for defending it, for being the land where the people came to seek freedom, stands and steps over international law and does such a thing, I think that it opens the door to all these people to take Western Sahara as if it is a territory where they can decide to who it belongs, to who to give it to, and where they can decide whether to go film in it or not, while the Sahrawis are denied of all of the rights. And as known, international law recognizes the right of the Sahrawi people to be the only ones to decide on Western Sahara. AMY GOODMAN: Abidin, we’re speaking to you in Tindouf, in Algeria, in the refugee camps there, where the FiSahara Film Festival is held, tTens of thousands of Sahrawis there. Can you go home? Could you go, for example, to Dakhla? ABIDIN MOHAMED HAMUDI: Absolutely not. Actually, my parents were born in Dakhla. They always tell me all about how they grew up in Western Sahara, in Dakhla specifically. And to think that Christopher Nolan, backed by Universal Pictures, and his own production company can just go there and film and be complicit in the occupation of my homeland, and then me being denied of going there, my parents being denied, and the actual Sahrawis who live under occupation going through all this repression, it is such a metaphor of how the Western world uses human rights, democracy narratives whenever they want, and then ignore it in other parts of the world. AMY GOODMAN: You know, we covered East Timor for years. The same year, it was occupied by Indonesia. It would ultimately win its freedom with a referendum, and they became one of the newest nations of the world, the Democratic Republic of East Timor, have always had great affinity with the people of the Western Sahara, occupied Western Sahara. What are you calling for, Mohamed? What are the people of the refugee camps, what are the Sahrawi calling for? ABIDIN MOHAMED HAMUDI: What we are calling for is very simple, and I think it’s very easy to implement. It’s to respect international law, respect U.N. resolutions, give the Sahrawi people the right to self-determinations. We are the legal owners of Western Sahara, of the territory of Western Sahara. And obviously, as you mentioned, East Timor is a great example of people struggling to gain their freedom. And what we are demanding, and we will keep struggling for, is to gain our right to self-determination and independence. And we will use film, in my case, and all the other tools available to the Sahrawi people, whether it’s in the refugee camps or in the occupied territories, to keep struggling. And we are aware of the difficulty of all this process. We have given sacrifices, and we’re willing to give everything in our hands to gain our freedom. AMY GOODMAN: And in last 10 seconds, if you were in Western Sahara, occupied, and you were filming, can you talk about what would happen? ABIDIN MOHAMED HAMUDI: If I was — first of all, I would be denied to enter Western Sahara. If I was there and I was filming, the first thing is, I would be repressed by the police, taken to jail, just like Naâma Asfari, who María has mentioned, and many other Sahrawis who have given their lives to defend Western Sahara. AMY GOODMAN: Mohamed Hamudi, we want to thank you for being with us, filmmaker from Western Sahara, part of Saharawi Voice, a collective of Sahrawi filmmakers and journalists, and María Carrión, executive director of FiSahara, the Sahara International Film Festival. You can go to Democracy Now! to see our documentary, Four Days in Western Sahara: Africa’s Last Colony, including an interview with the Sahrawi activist Naâma Asfari, who’s been on hunger strike since early June. That does it for our show. I’ll be in Kansas City this weekend for the screening of Steel This Story, Please! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Media Options