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Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey used occupied land as a film set. That feels like a betrayal | Mohamed Sleiman Labat
Sahrawi activist Mohamed Sleiman Labat has criticised Christopher Nolan for filming scenes of his blockbuster The Odyssey in Western Sahara, a territory occupied by Morocco, arguing this legitimises the occupation while Indigenous Sahrawis are denied the right to document their own lives. He notes the bitter irony that a film about displacement, separation and the long struggle to return home was shot on land whose native people have endured their own real-life odyssey of exile and repression for over 50 years. Labat argues that international film crews are granted access and protection by Moroccan authorities that Sahrawi journalists and film-makers are routinely denied, sometimes at the cost of imprisonment.
The piece traces the occupation back to 1975, when Spain handed the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, resulting in a brutal invasion. Today, roughly half the Sahrawi population lives in refugee camps in the Algerian desert, while the rest remain under military rule, separated by a 2,700km Moroccan-built wall lined with landmines. Labat frames Nolan's production as symptomatic of a wider "extractivist" pattern in Western cinema, whereby film-makers take striking images and cultural material from occupied or marginalised places without engaging with the political realities behind them, leaving Sahrawi voices silenced both on screen and in real life.
In short
- Sahrawi writer condemns Nolan's Odyssey for filming in occupied Western Sahara
- Sahrawis face imprisonment for filming; foreign crews get free access
- Western Sahara occupied since 1975; population divided by militarised wall
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The occupation of Western Sahara is a documented humanitarian crisis in which Sahrawi people have endured displacement and military rule for over fifty years. Filming there legitimises Morocco's control and compounds injustice by granting international productions the access and protection denied to Sahrawi journalists and filmmakers, sometimes resulting in imprisonment. This exemplifies cultural extraction, whereby Western filmmakers profit from striking imagery whilst marginalised communities remain voiceless both onscreen and in reality.
The case against
International film productions bring tangible economic and employment benefits whilst fostering cultural exchange and global attention. Producers obtaining proper permissions should enjoy artistic freedom in selecting locations; conditioning such decisions on geopolitical judgments would make filmmaking globally impractical and inappropriately politicise all creative endeavour. A production's location does not constitute endorsement of political positions, and requiring artists to take definitive stances on every contested territorial claim imposes an unreasonable burden.
Explained simply
Western Sahara is a territory in North Africa that has been occupied by Morocco since 1975, when Spain withdrew and handed control to Morocco and Mauritania. The territory's native inhabitants are the Sahrawis, a predominantly Arab and Berber people who have lived there for centuries. The transition to Moroccan control involved military conflict and has been marked by international dispute ever since.
Today, the Sahrawi population is deeply divided. Roughly half live in refugee camps in the Algerian desert, while the rest remain in Western Sahara under Moroccan military administration. A heavily fortified wall, stretching some 2,700 kilometres and lined with landmines, physically separates the two populations. This conflict has lasted over fifty years, with limited international intervention or resolution.
Christopher Nolan's recent film, The Odyssey, included scenes filmed in Western Sahara with Moroccan authorities' permission and protection. The activist Mohamed Sleiman Labat argues this is significant because international film crews receive access and safety guarantees that Sahrawi journalists and filmmakers are routinely denied, sometimes facing imprisonment for their work. Labat contends that filming in occupied territory without addressing its political reality amounts to legitimising the occupation.
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