FiSahara

During the 1960s, when decolonisation movements were sweeping the world, it was joked that after achieving independence a country had to do three things: design a flag, launch an airline and found a film festival. Western Sahara has a flag but no airline and, despite a 35-year struggle, has yet to achieve independence. The closest Western Sahara comes to its own film festival is the Sahara International Film Festival (known as FiSahara), the world’s most remote film festival. Its eighth edition took place in early May at a refugee camp deep in the Algerian desert.

Speaking from the festival on 8 May, actor Carlos Bardem announced that his brother Javier Bardem had donated 10,000 Euros to help fund a new film school. The school, which opened its doors this month, will give up to 20 refugees each year a chance to learn about all aspects of filmmaking. Carlos Bardem was among dozens of actors, producers and directors attending the festival. Javier Bardem, who visited the festival in 2008, sent his support and regrets that he was unable to attend this year’s event. Film director Ken Loach, who has had three of his films shown at previous editions of the film festival, was also unable to attend the launch but sent a message of support saying, “I would encourage everyone to attend this film festival once in their lives.”

Read all of Stefan Simanowitz's report from FiSahara in Issue 28 of Film & Festivals

www.festivalsahara.com (in Spanish)