noticias

YA TENEMOS CONFIRMADAS LAS FECHAS DE FiSAHARA 2013

del 8 al 13 de octubre 

viajaremos a los campamentos para apoyar un año más al pueblo saharaui

Este año el FiSahara celebra su décimo aniversario y para ello contaremos con el apoyo de grandes artistas que nos ayudarán a hacer de esta edición un evento muy especial.

¡¡NO TE LA PUEDES PERDER!!

VEN AL FESTIVAL!!!!

El documental "Hijos de las nubes, la última colonia", dirigido por Álvaro Longoria, producido y protagonizado por Javier Bardem, es el ganador de la Camella Blanca del FiSahara 2012. “Es un grandísimo honor par nosotros recibir este premio” declaro Álvaro Longoria. “Esta película nació en el FiSahara de 2008. Es emocionante que cuatro años después reciba un reconocimiento del festival que lo vio nacer”

El segundo premio ha recaído en la película "Wilaya" producida por Wandavision y dirigida por Pedro Pérez Rosado; y el tercero, en el documental de Lluis María Güell "Gdeim Izik, el campamento de la resistencia saharaui".

Aparte se concedieron dos menciones especiales, una de ellas al documental "Gdeim Izik: detonante de la primavera árabe" y otra para la risa, y las sonrisas, que han arrancado estos días los integrantes de "Pallasos en rebeldía".

En el acto de clausura del festival se dio lectura al manifiesto, un llamamiento a la sociedad civil española e internacional para que presionen a sus gobiernos en la búsqueda de una solución justa al conflicto del Sahara Occidental. Entre los firmantes, Juan Diego Botto, Willy Toledo, Aitana Sánchez Gijón, Malena Alterio y Eduard Fernández, quienes piden, una vez más, al gobierno español que asuma sus obligaciones como Estado descolonizador

Las dunas de Dajla se convirtieron anoche en una fiesta de música, magia y humor. Cientos de saharauis y visitantes del FiSahara disfrutaron de la puesta del sol sobre el desierto y de la música tradicional saharaui de "La estrella polisaria" y Martir Mahfud Ali Beiba.

El punto de magia y humor absurdo lo pusieron "Pallasos en rebeldía", un grupo que actúa en zonas de conflicto y que es una presencia constante en el festival. "Aquí estaremos hasta que este festival se pueda celebrar en el Sahara libre", aseguró uno de ellos tras verter un cubo de agua sobre la cabeza de su compañero.

El público de Dajla viajó anoche a los territorios ocupados del Sáhara Occidental a través de la película "Gdeim Izik: Detonante de la primavera Árabe" de Thawra España, un documental con imágenes inéditas del campamento de rebeldía y del brutal ataque de las fuerzas marroquíes.

La enorme alfombra a los pies de la pantalla del desierto se llenó de familias enteras, que también vieron "Katmandu, un espejo en el cielo" de Iciar Bollaín y "Silencio en la Nieve" de Gerardo Herrero. "Me gusta ver sitios lejanos donde nunca he estado y soñar que viajo hasta ellos", dijo Galia Ahmed, de 22 años, que disfrutaba de las proyecciones junto con sus cinco hermanos.

FiSahara last night screened the first films made by students of the Abidin Kaid Saleh Audiovisual school, who will become the first-ever graduates of the school. The students, their families and other residents of the Dakhla refugee Camp sat before the large outdoor screen to watch over a dozen shorts with themes such as chronic unemployment, the effects of early cigarette smoking and families' the struggle for subsistence in the camps.

The short, poignant vignettes with titles like "Innocence", "Broken Dreams" and "Unemployment" told the dreams, hopes and harsh realities faced by these young refugees who have grown up in exile. A packed audience watched enraptured under the desert sky.

"Thanks to the school I am fulfilling my dream," an emotional Lala Mohamed Fadel said. The 22 year-old was sitting on the oversized rug next to her parents, grandparents, siblings and extended family. Fadel added that she wants to become a fiction film director "so that I can tell the story of my country to people in far-off places". She also wants to make terror films.

FiSahara's two movie venues played to a packed audience last night. The giant desert screen opened with "Ivan's Dream" by director Roberto Santiago, a movie about a boy who wants to play soccer with the big stars - a hit for an audience that closely follows the world's soccer leagues.

"Letter to Sasha", about a young Sahrawi girl who writes a letter to President Obama's daughter, as well as the Sahrawi-themed "Wilaya" and "Gdeim Izik: The Origins of the Arab Spring" were also very popular with the audience.

Two films about the Spanish Civil War played in the indoor club: "The Robbed Truth" and "the Sleeping Voice".

Kids also enjoyed clown performances by the group Festiclown, which toured the camp on stilts.

Every Saturday, actor Jordi Sevilla phones his Sahrawi family from his home in Madrid. Since this family hosted him during the 2009 FiSahara, Sevilla carries their photos in his telephone. "When we see each other again, we all cry", he says. "Lifetime friendships are born out of this festival."

Sevilla's experience is not unique to visitors of the camps. Most people return because of strong ties with their "adoptive families" and their commitment to help the Sahrawis' struggle for survival and justice. During their stay, visitors sleep in tents with the families and share family meals. Many are invited to attend family events such as weddings.

Heikki Mattila, from Helsinki (Finland) found out about FiSahara through an article published in Helsingin Sanomat, Finland's largest newspaper. "As soon as we saw the pictures and read that visitors stay with families my wife and I decided we wanted to come to this magical place", he says. "And now I am here, I can say that I have never witnessed such hospitality and human warmth".

"So many solidarity projects are born out of this festival," says Roberto Lázaro, academic director of the film school, a project born out of FiSahara. "People go home and look for ways of helping out and spreading the word." Yesterday, festival-goers visited Dakhla's local hospital, which does not have permanent doctors and lacks basic supplies and infrastructure.

“Sons of Clouds” and “The Sahrawi teacher” are big hits among young Sahrawis. Students from the film school are awarded their first diplomas.

The first night of film screenings at FiSahara provoked strong reactions from the Sahrawi public, who for the first time viewed the documentary “Sons of Clouds: The Last Colony”, a look at the origins and causes of the Western Sahara conflict. In the film, Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem interviews politicians, human rights activists and Sahrawi refugees about the crisis and addresses the UN Committee on Decolonization, a moment that brought applause and cheers from the audience, many of whom were young refugees.

Moments before the screening, the festival opened with a ceremony featuring representatives from the Sahrawi government-in-exile, including the Minister of Culture, Badila Hamdi, as well as the president of the Spanish Network of Friends of the Sahrawi People, Pepe Taboada, who dedicated the event to the three humanitarian workers kidnapped from Rabuni a few months ago. “They are here with us, we do not forget them,” he said.

Representing Mexico, guest country at the festival, film director Gregorio Rocha told the audience that Mexican filmmakers “are building bridges over absurd walls and telling your story in far-off places”. Later, Rocha presented his film “The Lost Reels of Pancho Villa”, which played on the desert screen.

Students from the first graduate class of the Abidin Kaid Saleh Audiovisual School, a project born out of the festival, received their diplomas at the ceremony from the school’s academic director, Robert Lázaro. “This is the most important and beautiful thing I have ever done,” he told the students, most of them young refugee women.

The indoor movie theater was packed to the brim for the screening of “The Sahrawi Teacher, Oceans of Exile”, a moving documentary about the lives of young Sahrawi refugees who spend many years in school in Cuba, separated from their families, and then return to the camps, leaving friends and a second family behind. The film highlights the drama of a double separation and the returnees’ inevitable feeling of being strangers in their own land. “I was there, I know just how they feel”, said Salem, one of many Sahrawis who attended the screening and who went through similar experiences.

This morning, Fisahara opened the traditional sahrawi cultural fair, which shows the traditions and culture of Sahrawis in tents known as “haimas”, which represent five municipalities in the camps. Culture Minister Hamdi reminded the crowd that “this day is International Media Day” and remembered those places where freedom of the press still does not exist, including the occupied Western Sahara.

Tonight’s programming includes the films “Ivan´s Dream”, “Letter to Sasha” Gdeim Izik” and “The Robbed Truth”.

For frequent updates on the festival visit our YouTube channel

For a complete film program of the festival click here

For a complete cultural program of the festival click here

For English-language interviews please contact 

Thousands of Sahrawi refugees see the documentary film on the Western sahara conflict, starring Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem and directed by Alvaro Longoria and produced by Morena Films and the New York-based Candescent Films.

Dakhla, May 3rd

The Dakhla refugee camp, home to thousands of refugees from the Western Sahara, yesterday celebrated the opening of the 9th edition of FiSahara with the screening of Sons of Clouds. The documentary film, directed by Alvaro Longoria and co-produced by Bardem, Madrid-based Morena Films and New York City-based Candescent Films, explores the Western Sahara conflict: its historical roots, the reasons behind the political stalemate and the human rights and humanitarian crises it created.

"People have been waiting for months for this moment," said Salem Lbsir, Governor of Dajla.

The camp has become a giant outdoor movie theater, with film screenings under the stars and in an indoor movie club, and parallel cultural activities. The children's programming started yesterday morning with special kids' movies and clown acts performed by the group Festiclown.

Spanish actors and filmmakers Aitana Sánchez Gijón, Juan Diego Botto, Eduard Fernández, Malena Alterio and Gerardo Herrero have traveled to the camps. They and other visitors toured the local school and vegetable orchard.

"We are here to support the Sahrawi people and to remind the world that this political and humanitarian crisis must be resolved now", said actor Willie Toledo, co-director of the festival.

Mexico, guest country for this festival, opened the documentary film The Lost Reels of Pancho Villa, whose director, Gregorio Rocha, introduced the film. The first day of screenings includes other Sahrawi-themed films such as The Sahrawi Schoolteacher and Saharuiya.

Hundreds of refugees from other camps came to Dakhla to participate in the festival, which includes concerts, a camel race, a soccer match and other cultural activities. The event also features a traditional Sahrawi cultural market housed in Sahrawi tents known as haimas.

For frequent updates on the festival visit our YouTube channel

For a complete film program of the festival click here

For a complete cultural program of the festival click here

For English-language interviews please contact 

¿Te imaginas poder ver las películas que proyectaremos en FiSahara desde el sillón de tu casa? Si este año no has podido unirte al Festival, que se celebrará del 2 al 8 de mayo en el campamento de refugiados de Dajla, ahora te damos la oportunidad, al menos, de disfrutar del cine solidario.

Gracias al acuerdo alcanzado con la Entidad de Gestión de Derechos de los Productores Audiovisuales (EGEDA), el próximo 30 de abril arranca VeoFiSahara, que estará activo hasta el 9 de mayo. Durante este tiempo, todo el que solicite su código personal e instransferible -de manera gratuita- podrá ver las películas de manera ilimitada, disfrutando de calidades de streaming dinámico a 400 kbps, 800 kbps, 1300 kbps y 2000 kbps. Además, no hay limitaciones, ni  geográfica ni horaria, para el visionado de las obras.

Para solicitar el código personal que dé acceso al visionado de películas, tan sólo has mandar un correo electrónico con el asunto: VEOFISHARA 2011: SOLICITUD CODIGO ACCESO PLATAFORMA - (NOMBRE DE PERSONA/EMPRESA).
El correo ha de enviarse a Gemma Martínez o Susana Ranchal; poniendo siempre en copia a Lorena Gallego y Oscar Berrendo.

Muy IMPORTANTE: Cada código de acceso es personal y de uso exclusivo para quien lo solicite (por temas de seguridad de la plataforma), de forma que nadie puede facilitar el código asignado a terceros, ya que el código puede quedar bloqueado.