Sahara Film Festival: dreams of the Saharawi homeland

Dakhla refugee camp emerges out of the dust, a sprawling single-storey city built from the desert sand. We are approaching at speed along a network of dirt tracks in a fleet of Landcruisers. On board are a charter plane-load of people, mainly Spaniards, who left Madrid at midnight and whose presence will augment the number of international participants at the Sahara film festival to over 400. After touching down at Tindouf, Western Algeria, in the early hours of the morning and a bumpy 140 mile drive we are rewarded with a warm welcome as the sun climbs in the cloudless sky.

The camp itself is clean and well organised, with wide sandy streets lined with rectangular houses and tents forming neat family compounds. The festival site is in a spacious area in the centre of the camp and includes a multiplex-sized outdoor screen surrounded by tents for workshops, exhibitions and indoor screenings as well as numerous stalls. The festival programme is eclectic with over 40 films from around the world reflecting diverse experiences of struggle and hope. Audiovisual workshops provide Sahrawi refugees with an opportunity to learn about all aspects of film-making as well as create their own video messages which will be seen by their extended families in Western Sahara from whom they have been separated for 34 years.

A number of well-known people from the entertainment industry are in attendence. The biggest names this year are actors Helena Anaya (Sex and Lucia) and Eduardo Noriega (Vantage Point) as well as Oscar nominated film director, Javier Fesser. Rumours that Benicio del Toro and football legend Diego Maradonna might turn up proved to be unfounded. The celebrities, like all visitors to the festival, stay with Saharwi families. I am staying with Issa Brahim, a 32 year-old mother of four who was born and raised in the camp. Over a glass of sweet tea she tells me about the difficulties of life in Dakhla. "We have nothing here." she says "We are without work, we are without water from taps, we are without land for our goats to graze. But we are not without hope". Greatest among Issa´s hopes is to set foot in her homeland for the first time.