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The Shubbak Festival- El Problema: Testimony of the Saharawi People

Mon 11 Jul 2011, 5:30pm

Free Word Lecture Theatre

El Problema (The Problem, 53 mins) is a Spanish documentary, produced by Jordi Ferrer and Pablo Vidal, featuring testimonies and documents gathered over four and a half years in Western Sahara – clandestine images, given the Moroccan authorities’ prohibition of filming in the area. Using exceptional archival footage, the documentary tells the story of how hundreds of thousands of Saharawis from Western Sahara became refugees in the harsh Algerian Sahara more than 35 years ago. It also brings to life the systematic human rights abuses perpetuated by Morocco's occupational regime in Western Sahara. Key Saharawi human rights activists took huge risks to participate in this film in order to highlight how all physical expressions of Saharawi identity are forbidden and even the use of the name Western Sahara is a “problem”, El Problema, for the unheard Saharawis.

El Problema is the winner of the Amnesty International Prize at the San Sebastian film festival in 2010, Human Rights Human Wrongs Film Festival in Oslo 2010, and the First Prize at FISAHARA 2010 International Sahara Film Festival.

The screening will be introduced by Danielle Smith, Director of Sandblast Arts, an arts and human rights charity promoting the culture of the Saharawi people.