Christopher Nolan has been busy filming his 2026 epic “The Odyssey” in various parts of the world. But according to the Western Sahara International Film Festival (FiSahara), he would not have shot in Dakhla if he knew how Moroccan forces allegedly treat the indigenous Sahrawi population.
FiSahara issued a public statement last week urging the director to halt filming on his Universal Pictures adaptation of Homer’s poem that stars Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Logan Marshall-Green, Jon Bernthal and Charlize Theron.
“Dakhla is not just a beautiful location with cinematic sand dunes. Primarily, it is an occupied, militarized city whose indigenous Sahrawi population is subject to brutal repression by occupying Moroccan forces,” the festival shared last Tuesday. “Stop filming in Dakhla and stand in solidarity with the indigenous Sahrawis who have been under military occupation for 50 years, and who are routinely jailed and tortured for their peaceful struggle for self-determination.”
“We are sure that were they to understand the full implications of filming such as high-profile film in a territory whose indigenous peoples are unable to make their own films about their stories under occupation, Nolan and his team would be horrified,” the statement continued.
With that said, the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and the Netherlands all consider the area to be Moroccan territory, so filming there is within American foreign policy guidelines. Additionally, a studio source noted to TheWrap that FiSahara’s message only came after Nolan had finished filming four days’ worth of content in the Western Sahara.
The Western Sahara International Film Festival is a member of the Human Rights Film Network and has hosted 18 editions.
“By filming part of ‘The Odyssey’ in an occupied territory billed as a ‘news black hole’ by Reporters Without Borders, Nolan and his team, perhaps unknowingly and unwillingly, are contributing to the repression of the Sahrawi people by Morocco, and to the Moroccan regime’s efforts to normalize its occupation of Western Sahara,” FiSahara executive director María Carrión said.
“Morocco only allows entry into occupied Western Sahara to those who fit into its strategy to sell its occupation to the outside world: Tourists who go to Morocco-built and owned resorts to kite surf, companies willing to participate in its plunder of natural resources, journalists willing to toe its line, and high profile visitors such as Nolan and his team who help Morocco sell the story that Western Sahara is part of Morocco, and that Sahrawis are content to live under its rule, are given red carpet treatment,” Carrión added. “But ask organizations like Amnesty International, UN human rights chief Volker Turk or the hundreds of journalists and observers who are either prevented or deported from the territory, and they will tell a different story.”
“The Odyssey” is set to hit theaters on July 17, 2026.