Sahara International Film Festival

Sahara International Film Festival
Festival de Cine del Sáhara
الصحراء السينمائي الدولي
Location Wilaya of Dakhla, Sahrawi refugee camps, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic / Algeria
Founded November 2003
Awards White Camel
Language International
Website http://www.festivalsahara.com
(in Spanish)
The Spanish actress Verónica Forqué at the 2007 edition festival.

The Sahara International Film Festival, also known as FiSahara, is an annual event which takes place in the Sahrawi refugee camps, at the South West corner of Algeria, near the border with Western Sahara. It is the only film festival in the world taking place in a refugee camp.[1] The first three years the festival was held alternately in the Wilaya of Smara, Wilaya of Ausserd and Wilaya of El Aaiun, but since 2007 the FiSahara had stayed in the Wilaya of Dakhla. The event is backed by the Polisario Front,[2] but largely organised and funded by donors from Spain, the former colonial power in Western Sahara, attracting support from Spanish film celebrities as Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Pedro Almodóvar.[3] This Festival is an initiative to bring film as an entertainment and cultural form to the thousands of Sahrawis whose community has lived for more than thirty years in relative isolation in the Algerian desert, being the only film festival in the world taking place in a refugee camp. The first festival was in large part organised by Peruvian film director Javier Corcuera.[2]

The festival has the two-fold aim of providing cultural entertainment and educational opportunities to refugees, and of raising awareness of the plight of the Sahrawi people, who have been exiled from their native Western Sahara for more than three decades. Western Sahara, “Africa’s last colony,” was given to Morocco and Mauritania by the Spanish when they withdrew in 1976. The Moroccans subsequently annexed the entire territory in 1979, in defiance of a ruling from the International Court of Justice. A sixteen-year war ensued between the Moroccans and the native Sahrawi independence movement, the Polisario Front. Under the terms of a 1991 UN ceasefire agreement, a referendum for self-determination was promised, but has been blocked by Morocco. In the meantime an estimated 165,000 refugees continue to live in four large camps in the inhospitable Algerian desert.

Home to around 30,000 refugees, Dakhla is the most remote of the camps, located 175 km away from the nearest city, Tindouf.[4] It has no electricity or paved roads and is dependent on outside supplies of food and water.[5]

Musicians like Fermín Muguruza,[6][7] Manu Chao,[1] Macaco,[8] Iván Ferreiro,[9] El Chojin[10] or Tomasito[11] had also performed in concerts during the festival.

In 2010, a twinning agreement was signed between the FiSahara and the San Sebastian Human Rights Film Festival.[12]

White Camel Winners

The White Camel (Arabic: الجمل الأبيض‎) is the festival's highest prize, awarded for the best film by election of the spectators.[13] It consists on a white female camel, which is traditionally donated to the refugee family who had hosted the actors or director of the winner film during the festival. Instead, the winners take home a trophy depicting a white camel and a desert rose.

YearDateFilm NationalityDirector
200320–23 NovemberThe Living Forest  SpainÁngel de la Cruz
Manolo Gómez
2004December (Not Held)N/AN/AN/A
20053–6 MarchMadame Brouette  Senegal
 France
 Canada		Moussa Sene Absa
20065–9 AprilThe Story of the Weeping Camel  Mongolia
 Germany		Byambasuren Davaa
Luigi Farloni
200710–15 AprilAzur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest  France
 Belgium
 Spain
 Italy		Michel Ocelot
200817–20 AprilIt's a Free World...  United KingdomKen Loach
20095–10 MayChe: Part 2  United States
 Spain
 France		Steven Soderbergh
201026 April-2 MayThe Problem  SpainJordi Ferrer
Pablo Vidal
20112–8 MayEntrelobos  Spain
 Germany		Gerardo Olivares
20121–6 MaySons of the Clouds: The Last Colony  SpainAlvaro Longoria
20138–13 OctoberMayibuye I  South AfricaMilly Moabl
201429 April–4 MayLegna: Habla el Verso Saharaui[14]  Sahrawi Republic
 Spain		Juan Robles
Bahia Awah
Juan Carlos Gimeno
201528 April-3 MayGranito: How to Nail a Dictator United StatesPamela Yates

Guest Country

Since 2006, some years the festival elect a country to be guest in the event. In such cases, films from the guest country are screened and related events take place along the other acts in the festival.

YearGuest Country/Continent
2006 Cuba[15][16]
2009 Algeria[17][18]
2010 South Africa[19][20]
2011 Venezuela[21][22]
2012 Mexico[23][24]
2013 United States[25]
2014 South Africa[26]

References

  1. 1 2 Comienza 'Fisahara 2008', el único festival de cine en un campo de refugiados El Mundo, 18 April 2008 (in Spanish)
  2. 1 2 Roape Article
  3. ↑ Holly Meadows (11 April 2012). "FiSahara: The World's Most Remote Film Festival". Africa Geographic. Archived from the original on 30 April 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  4. ↑ Stefan Simanowitz (13 May 2010). "FiSahara: Film Festival in the Desert". The Guardian.
  5. ↑ The Riddle of the Sands: How a refugee camps set up an international film festival Stefan Simanowitz, The Independent, 15 May 2009
  6. ↑ Me gusta el Sáhara, me gustas tú Archived 2013-10-12 at the Wayback Machine. Cine entre las dunas – El País, 23 April 2008 (in Spanish)
  7. ↑ Festival Internacional de Cine del Sahara (FiSahara) 2009 Radiochango.com (in Spanish)
  8. ↑ Macaco actuará en la clausura del VI Festival Internacional de Cine Del Sahara (FiSAHARA) Archived 2013-07-04 at the Wayback Machine. Macaco.es, 7 May 2009 (in Spanish)
  9. ↑ Ivan Ferreiro corona el desierto El Mundo, 3 May 2010 (in Spanish)
  10. ↑ El Chojin en FISAHARA 2011 Elchojin.net, 12 April 2011 (in Spanish)
  11. ↑ El Canijo de Jerez y Tomasito en el Festival de Cine del Sahara Inzona.es, 1 May 2012 (in Spanish)
  12. ↑ Objective Fisahara: Twinning between the San Sebastian Human Rights Film Festival and the Sahara International Film Festival, seen in pictures and first-hand accounts Archived 2013-10-11 at Archive.is Donostia.org
  13. ↑ Additional festival events Festivalsahara.com
  14. ↑ ""Legna" film wins first award of FiSahara". Sahara Press Service. 4 May 2014. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  15. ↑ Cuba: país invitado en el III Festival Internacional de Cine del Sahara Somosjovenes.cu (in Spanish)
  16. ↑ Cuba será el país invitado en el III Festival Internacional de Cine del Sahara Rebelion.org, 13 March 2006 (in Spanish)
  17. ↑ Arranca FiSahara 09 FiSahara.blogspot.com.es, 23 March 2009 (in Spanish)
  18. ↑ FISAHARA 09 Archived 2014-03-27 at the Wayback Machine. Vivir bien es un placer!!! (¡Hola!), 21 April 2009 (in Spanish)
  19. ↑ El FCAT con el pueblo saharaui en el FiSahara 2010 Archived 2012-07-08 at the Wayback Machine. African Film Festival of Tarifa (in Spanish)
  20. ↑ FiSahara, el festival de cine que se celebra en un campamento de refugiados 20 minutos, 12 April 2010 (in Spanish)
  21. ↑ Concluye el FiSahara 2011: entre el cine y la reivindicación Archived 2014-04-13 at the Wayback Machine. Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 9 May 2011 (in Spanish)
  22. ↑ FiSahara: cine bajo las estrellas ABC, 4 May 2011 (in Spanish)
  23. ↑ "No conseguirán atemorizar al FiSahara" Público (EFE), 2 May 2012 (in Spanish)
  24. ↑ La delegación de México en el FiSahara afirma su determinación de romper el silencio informativo en el Sáhara Occidental Archived 2014-04-13 at the Wayback Machine. Sahara Press Service, 3 May 2012 (in Spanish)
  25. ↑ Decade after: FiSahara achieved international status, confirms Saharawi Culture Minister Archived 2014-04-13 at the Wayback Machine. Sahara Press Service, 10 July 2013
  26. ↑ South Africa guest of honor of FiSahara 2014 and Nelson Mandela honored in the occasion SADR Permanent Mission in Ethiopia and African Union, 9 April 2014
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