The festival, known as FiSahara, will take place in a desert refugee camp attended by over 200 international actors, directors, human rights and video activists and cinephiles, alongside thousands of Saharawi refugees. This years' festival will also have a strong South African contingent with film makers, activists and representatives of the Ministry of Culture attending and running workshops.
One South African film being screened is Mayibuye I Western Sahara, made by Milly Moabi and Bheki Sibiya, exploring the history of solidarity between South Africa and Western Sahara and drawing parallels between their respective struggles for freedom.
Milly Moabi said today: The screening at FiSahara will be closing a circle which began for me when I stayed in the refugee camps and experienced the hardship of the lives of the Sahrawi in 2011. I was inspired by their peaceful resilience. I was also inspired by the words of solidarity shared by former South African leaders Thabo Mbeki, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela for the Sahrawis freedom.
In previous years FiSahara has been attended by actors such as Javier Bardem and some well-known figures are expected this year alongside activist filmmakers from Europe, the United States, Africa and the Middle East. This years festival honours Sahrawi women, who built the refugee camps and are at the forefront of the struggle for human rights in the Western Sahara.
Javier Bardem who attended FiSahara in 2008 said: To run an international film festival in a refugee camp deep in the Sahara desert is little short of a miracle. The10th edition of FiSahara promises to be one of the best, not only entertaining and educate all who participate but also helping to raise awareness of the plight of the Saharawi refugees who have been exiled from their native Western Sahara for almost four decades.
This years programme - designed to inspire and inform - includes a broad range of films from documentary to animation, short films to blockbusters. The Academy Award winning Life of Pi and The Impossible will be screened alongside Sahrawi-themed works, including 18 short films made Saharawi refugees, students of the film school set up in the camps in 2011 as part of the Cinema for the Sahrawi People project.
At its heart, FiSahara is a human rights film festival. Strengthened by its partnership with Amnesty Internationals Movies that Matter, this years programme includes a series of films on social justice and the Arab Spring. The programme, together with workshops, will explore ways in which film-making can help transform societies acting as a tool for advocacy, protest and reconciliation. Highlights amongst these films include Sobukwe the Great Soul (South Africa) Five Broken Cameras (Palestine/ Israel), Wadjda (Saudi Arabia), My Makzhen & Me (Morocco), The Runner (Western Sahara) and The Suffering Grasses (Syria). Sahrawi human rights organizations based in the camps, including those representing family members of the disappeared and injured in conflict, as well as de-mining activists, will be present at the event.
Festival guests will fly to Tindouf, Algeria, and travel 100 miles in convoy into the desert to Dakhla refugee camp home to around 30,000 refugees. They will stay with refugee families, living in their stucco and tented homes and enjoying the unique Saharawi hospitality. Film screenings will take place after sundown, projected onto multiplex-sized screens.
Wim Brouwer, Coordinator of Amnesty Internationals A Matter of ACT programme said: We are delighted to be involved with FiSahara and to help shed light on the invisible human rights and humanitarian crisis in the Western Sahara. The central aim of Amnesty Internationals Matter of ACT programme is to support initiatives that raise awareness on the work of human rights defenders, as well as stimulate debate and discussion. We hope that our contribution will help inspire and empower the Sahrawis refugees and remind them that, despite their physical isolation, they are not alone in their struggle for freedom and justice.
For more information or to book your place, visit the Sahara International Film Festival website or click here to send queries via email.
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The festival, known as FiSahara, will take place in a desert refugee camp attended by over 200 international actors, directors, human rights and video activists and cinephiles, alongside thousands of Saharawi refugees. This years' festival will also have a strong South African contingent with film makers, activists and representatives of the Ministry of Culture attending and running workshops.
