Overview

• Sahrawi authorities and the Western Sahara International Film Festival are urging an immediate halt to Nolan’s Dakhla shoot, calling it an endorsement of Morocco’s contested occupation and a violation of Sahrawi self-determination.
• Reda Benjelloun of Morocco’s cinematographic center has praised the project as a catalyst for foreign productions and local industry development in Dakhla.
• Filming in Dakhla lasted at least four days in late July in a territory classified by the United Nations as non-self-governing and largely under Moroccan military control since 1976.
• Human rights and press freedom organizations warn that major film shoots in the region risk whitewashing ongoing repression of the Sahrawi population amid restricted access for independent reporting.
• Neither Christopher Nolan nor Universal Pictures has issued a public response to the mounting accusations of cultural normalization of occupation.