Christopher Nolan's upcoming film 'The Odyssey' hit with boycott demands
The Oscar-winning director is facing criticism from Sahrawi activists
Christopher Nolan's upcoming film The Odyssey has landed in the middle of an unexpected controversy ahead of its release, with campaigners urging moviegoers to stay away from the film.
The backlash isn't about the cast or the story. Instead, it's focused on where part of the film was shot.
Scenes for the blockbuster were filmed in Dakhla, a city in Western Sahara that has been under Moroccan control for decades. Sahrawi activists and filmmakers argue that using the location without acknowledging the territory's disputed status helps legitimize the occupation.
Filmmaker and journalist Mamine Hachimi said the boycott does not target Nolan personally or filmmaking itself. Instead, he described it as a call for greater responsibility from major productions choosing filming locations.
Hachimi pointed out that Sahrawi journalists have faced arrests and lengthy prison sentences for documenting alleged human rights abuses in the region, while international productions are allowed to film there without addressing the political reality.
Another Sahrawi filmmaker, Mohamedsalem Werad, said Nolan's production could not be separated from politics because permission to film came through Moroccan authorities. In his view, the decision ignored the rights of the indigenous Sahrawi people.
The criticism has also been backed by FiSahara, the Western Sahara International Film Festival. The organization says it repeatedly asked Nolan and Universal Pictures to stop filming in the territory and later remove those scenes from the final cut, but says those requests were ignored.
Festival director Maria Carrión has now called for audiences to boycott the film, accusing the production of benefiting from an occupation that remains the subject of a decades-long international dispute.
Neither Christopher Nolan nor Universal Pictures has commented publicly on the calls for a boycott.
The Odyssey, one of Hollywood's biggest releases of the year, is set to arrive in cinemas this week.
