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Last week, the organizers of the International Film Festival of Western Sahara (FiSahara) sharply criticized Christopher Nolan.
The director reportedly filmed parts of Odyssey in Dakhla, a city in Western Sahara under Moroccan occupation for the past 50 years.
*Action movie, based on Homer’s epic, filmed in various locations worldwide, set to release on 17.07.2026.
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The organizers argue that Nolan’s recent presence in Dakhla contributes to the normalization of Moroccan occupation.
“By filming part of Odyssey in occupied territory […] Nolan and his team, perhaps unintentionally, contribute to the oppression of the Sahrawi people by Morocco and to the Moroccan regime’s efforts to legitimize its occupation of Western Sahara,” they stated.
(fyiteam)
On Saturday (02.08), U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed his support for Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara in a message to King Mohammed VI.
Earlier, at the end of his first term, he had recognized Morocco’s claims to Western Sahara in exchange for normalizing the North African country’s relations with Israel.
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Western Sahara is a disputed territory of 252,120 km² (roughly the size of the UK) in northwestern Africa.
Mostly covered by desert, it is one of the most sparsely populated regions in the world (around 560,000 inhabitants).
It is rich in fishing and natural resources, such as phosphate*, used in food processing and fertilizers.
Morocco and Western Sahara together hold 70% of global phosphate reserves, mostly controlled by Moroccan and European companies.
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From 1884 to 1976, it was a Spanish colony.
When the Spaniards left, they handed control to Morocco and Mauritania, but the Algeria-backed Polisario Front* also entered the dispute, fighting the Spanish colonizers.
The Front declared the area an independent country, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (recognized by around 80 countries), and in 1979 agreed on a truce with Mauritania, which renounced its territorial claims.
National revolutionary liberation movement representing the indigenous Sahrawi people.
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With the signing of the truce, Morocco annexed Mauritania’s portion and claimed the entire territory.
In 1991, the Polisario Front and Morocco accepted the UN’s 1988 ceasefire proposal, which included holding a referendum (for independence or integration with Morocco) that has since been repeatedly postponed.
Today, Morocco controls about 80% of the territory, while the Polisario Front holds the rest, along the border with Mauritania.
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The Polisario Front insists that only residents (and their descendants) who lived there before 1974 should vote in the independence referendum.
Morocco argues that new settlers who have moved there from its territory should also vote, which would likely lock the referendum in its favor.
Thus, the chances of the two sides agreeing on the terms for holding the referendum are minimal.
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The UN does not recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara and considers it a “non-self-governing territory,” repeatedly calling for the referendum to take place.
The UN has had no access to the area since 2015 and reports human rights violations and discrimination against the Sahrawi people.
Journalists and humanitarian organizations also report that Moroccan authorities block their entry to monitor and investigate alleged abuses.
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In 2020, the U.S. became the first country to officially recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, followed by Israel in 2023.
Several Western countries (Spain, France, the UK, etc.) approved Morocco’s 2007 plan for Western Sahara autonomy under Moroccan rule (instead of a referendum) in exchange for greater cooperation in migration and trade.
All these moves move the prospect of a referendum -which would allow the Sahrawi people to exercise self-determination- further out of reach.
