Sun, sand, and celluloid: the Sahara film festival

If it sounds a little wrong to admit to having fun visiting a refugee camp, then you’ve probably never attended the Festival de Cine del Sahara (FiSahara). Last year I posted a series of reports from FiSahara 2009, the most remote film festival in the world. Today, I will be heading back to Dakhla refugee camp, deep in the Algerian desert, to attend the festival’s 7th edition.

With over 400 visitors from around the world joining the Saharawi refugees for screenings of 30 features films and a selection of shorts, this year’s festival promises to be the best yet. Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Victoria Abril will be among the guests and for the first time a flight has been organised from London to transport members of the British film community, including actress Oona Chaplin, daughter of Geraldine and granddaughter of Charlie. There will be dune parties, camel races and a concert by the band, Los Piratas. And yet despite the fun, the purpose of the festival is very serious.

It aims to highlight the plight of the estimated 165,000 refugees who were forced to flee their native Western Sahara in 1975 after an unlawful invasion by neighbouring Morocco. As well as offering a rare chance for the isolated refugees to ‘go to the movies’, the festival also aims to provide them educational opportunities. This year there will be over a dozen audiovisual training workshops ranging from sound editing to film archiving. Festival-goers will also witness the inauguration of the first ever Saharawi film school, the culmination of years of planning and fund-raising. Through these activities it is hoped to lay the foundations for a future generation of Saharawi film-makers who will go on to tell their own stories in their own way.

The festival programme includes a showcase of films from South Africa, this years’ ‘guest country’ as well as various works on and by the Saharawi people. It also includes blockbusters such as Agora, the Hollywood epic set in ancient Egypt, the Oscar-winning Argentine thriller Secret In Their Eyes and Ken Loach’s critically acclaimed Looking for Eric. Loach has been a long-time supporter of the festival having previously had three films shown there. Indeed, his Wind that Shakes the Barley won the 2008 White Camel; FiSahara’s ‘best film award’.

This year’s festival has been jointly dedicated to Aminatou Haidar and the Casablanca Seven. Haidar was the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated woman whose hunger strike last year drew global attention to the crisis in Western Sahara. The Casablanca Seven are a group of prominent human rights defenders who have been charged with treason and could face the death penalty.

As I write this, news has just come through that the Seven, in detention in a prison in Rabat, have ended their 41 day hunger strike after "receiving assurances" from the Moroccan authorities. News that the hunger strike has ended has been greeted with jubilation by festival-goers, but no matter how much we celebrate and how much fun we may be having, none of us forget why we are here.

FiSahara Film Festival 2010 will run from 26th April – 2nd May Visit www.festivalsahara.com