The simple act of holding a camera in Western Sahara can be a crime. Sahrawi filmmakers and journalists who document life under Moroccan occupation often face imprisonment.
For the Moroccan regime, a camera in Sahrawi hands threatens its official narrative that Western Sahara is part of Morocco.
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Yet when international filmmakers like Christopher Nolan choose to shoot in the territory, they are welcomed and granted access by the same authorities that deny Sahrawis that right.
This paradox is at the heart of a bitter reality, according to Sahrawi multidisciplinary artist Mohamed Sleiman Labat.
Labat wrote an opinion piece published by Asatu News, criticizing Nolan's decision to film parts of "The Odyssey" in Dakhla, a city in occupied Western Sahara.
"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," Labat wrote.
Western Sahara has been occupied by Morocco since 1975, when Spanish colonial authorities handed over the territory to Morocco and Mauritania.
Today, half of the Sahrawi people live in refugee camps in Algeria, while the other half lives under a military police state separated by a 2,700km militarized wall built by Morocco and fortified with millions of landmines.
Extractivist Practices in Western Cinema
Labat argues that Nolan's choice to film in an occupied territory highlights extractivist practices embedded in the Western film industry.
