Cinebaix organizes the cycle “Cinema Against the Occupation. Sahrawi Cinema”, an initiative that wants to give voice to the women and human rights of the Western Sahara. The series, which has the collaboration of the International Film Festival of the Western Sahara (Fisahara), offers four sessions of short films, some made by Sahrawi filmmakers, and debates with experts and activists. The cycle will take place this weekend, Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 March.
A tribute to Sahrawi women
The first session, which will take place on Saturday March 9 at 6 p.m., will be dedicated to Sahrawi women, who have been the protagonists of the resistance and the fight for their people. Two short films will be shown: Running Home and Insumisas. The first tells the story of Inma, an adopted girl who discovers that her biological mother was born in Al-Aaiun, in the Western Sahara, and decides to participate in a marathon in the Sahrawi refugee camps to learn about her roots. The second shows the courage of women who organized themselves to denounce the human rights violations that Morocco has committed against them and their families from 1975 until today. After the screenings, there will be a debate with Laura Dauden, director of Insumisas, and a representative of Sahrawi women in Catalonia.
A look at Sahrawi cinema
The second session, which will begin at 8:10 p.m., will present four short films produced in Sahrawi, which reflect the reality and culture of this people. Toufa recreates, through the testimony of three generations of women, the first moments of exile in the Hamada desert. In search of Tirfas tells the daily life and work aspirations of the youth in the refugee camps. El precio de la belleza questions the standards of beauty that Sahrawi women suffer from. And The nomadic garden tells the story of a young man who has managed to create a garden in one of the most hostile places on the planet, defying the lack of water, high temperatures and infertile land.
The invisible war of the Sahara
The third session, which will take place on Sunday at 6 p.m., will address the armed conflict that Western Sahara has suffered for more than 40 years. Two short films will be shown: El fuego escondido and Mutha y la muerte by Ham-Ma Fuku. The first shows the impact of the anti-personnel mines that Morocco planted in the desert, which have caused more than 4,000 victims. The second relates the work of a woman who is dedicated to finding and deactivating these mines. Before the screenings, there will be a talk by Alejandro Pozo, author of the book “¿Quién arma Israel? The moral and legal imperative embargo”.
From Al-Aauin to Gaza: Cinema against the occupation
The last session, which will take place at 8 p.m., will draw a parallel between the situation in Western Sahara and that of Palestine, two peoples subjected to military occupation and the violation of their rights. Two short films will be shown: Soukeina. 4,400 days of night and Roof knocking. The first explains how the Moroccan government, after the occupation of Western Sahara in 1976, applied a policy of extermination against the Sahrawi civilian population. The second narrates the moments of a family who are warned by an Israeli soldier that their building will be bombed in 10 minutes. After the screenings, there will be a debate with a member of BDS Catalonia (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) and a representative of the Polisari Front in Catalonia.
Cinema as a tool of self-expression
The cycle “Cinema against occupation. Sahrawi Cinema” is the result of Cinebaix’s collaboration with the International Film Festival of the Western Sahara (FiSahara), which is held every year in the Sahrawi refugee camps. FiSahara was born in 2003 with the aim of entertaining and empowering the Sahrawi people through cinema, and of making the Western Sahara conflict known internationally. Sahrawis have made cinema a tool to express themselves, culturally resist and become active for human rights, and have created their own cinematography.
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