During the 1960s, when decolonisation movements were sweeping the world, it was joked that, after achieving independence, a country had to do three things: design a flag, launch an airline and found a film festival. Western Sahara has a flag but no airline and, despite a 35-year struggle, has yet to achieve independence. The closest Western Sahara comes to its own film festival is the Festival Internacional de Cine del Sahara (known as FiSahara), the world’s most remote film festival, the seventh edition of which took place this week in a refugee camp deep in the Algerian desert.
A film festival might seem like the last thing needed by refugees who are dependent on external aid for virtually all their basic needs, but the festival organisers regard culture as an important and much overlooked aspect of humanitarian aid, essential for maintaining the spirit and identity of a people who have lived in exile for over 35 years. FiSahara takes place in Dakhla, the most isolated of four camps in a region known as ‘The Devil’s Garden’. It is 130 miles from the nearest town and home to around 30,000 Saharawi refugees. There are no paved roads, no sources of water, no vegetation and in the summer months temperatures regularly top 120°F. And yet once a year, Dakhla plays host to a gala of screenings, concerts and workshops attended by around 400 actors, directors and film industry insiders from around the world.
The programme boasts an eclectic mix of over 30 films including several about the experience of the Saharawis, some made by Saharawi refugees themselves. Other films offer the refugees a window on the rest of the world and an audience of over 300 refugees sits for two hours captivated by films such as Ken Loaches Looking for Eric, the story of a postman living in a Manchester housing estate. “Eric is not a refugee but he has just the same problems of the heart as we do in the desert,” observed Aliya Ahmed after the film. Sixteen-year-old Mahyouba Ahmedu was particularly enthusiastic about a South African film called The Manuscripts of Timbuktu. “Seeing the way that Tuaregs live like us in the desert was very interesting” she said. “I would like to travel and to understand what it is that makes people
different and what it is that makes people just the same.” While many of the films, such as the Gaza documentary To Shoot an Elephant, are about social struggles, festival organisers are keen to ensure that audiences are also entertained.
Gordos, a Spanish comedy about obesity, goes down well and the Spanish animation Planet 51 about an astronaut captured by aliens fills the desert night with children’s laughter. Although films are generally
culturally appropriate for a Muslim audience of all ages, there is no censorship and a scene in the Hollywood epic Agora, involving a naked Rachel Weiss, sends an excited shockwave through the audience.
Despite his failing eyesight, 70-year-old Salek Sahah Yahia sat through El Problema, a film exploring the history of the crisis in Western Sahara. “My head is full of memories,” he said as the credits rolled. “It was many years ago but for me the day napalm bombs fell on our village is like this morning.” In 1976, Yahia led his family to the safety of Dakhla before returning to fight for four years against the Moroccan occupation. “I am an old man but I am still ready to pick up a gun.” he said clenching a bony fist. However, as Yahia struggled to get up from the sand before the next film began it is clear that his fighting days are over.
For Deiga Aklaminhom who is 32 and has lived her entire life in Dakhla, FiSahara offers a welcome break from the monotony of life as a refugee. “I have been waiting all year for this week to come”, she smiles. “For me, the workshops have been so wonderful”. Over a dozen workshops are run by film industry professionals offering the refugees access to film-making equipment and audio-visual training. This year, 20 Britons from the Caravanserai acting studio ran a joint workshop with a film director to teach potential Saharawi film-makers how to work with actors. “There was one moment during the workshop when a scene we were developing about the torture of a hunger striker slipped into ultra realism,” recalls acting coach Giles Forman. “It was incredibly intense and despite cultural and linguistic barriers I’m certain that everyone in that room had goose pimples.” And it is this form of cultural interchange that makes FiSahara so remarkable. All visitors, including the celebrities, stay with Saharawi families sharing their home and their food and talking leisurely over endless glasses of sweet Sahawari tea.
On the last day, festival-goers gathered for the opening of a new radio, film and television school built in a neighbouring camp. The school will provide technical training and the work produced there will form part of the programme of future festivals. According to Jadiya Hamdi, Minister of Culture of the Saharawi government in exile, engaging young people in film-
making not only sustains and energises Saharawi culture but also gives these
forgotten people a sense of purpose.
“Empty time is a dangerous thing,” she said. “It can kill a human soul.”