Christopher Nolan, known for directing blockbusters like Memento, Interstellar and Oppenheimer, is dealing with public backlash for filming scenes of his original movie, The Odyssey, in phase of north Africa referred to as Western Sahara.
The territory, previously referred to as Spanish Sahara when it was once administered from Madrid, was once occupied by the Moroccan militia within the Seventies and unlawfully annexed. It remains classified by the UN as a “non-self-governing territory” waiting for decolonisation.
The original controversy considerations the filming of phase of The Odyssey in Dahkla, a Western Saharan metropolis on the hover of the Atlantic Ocean. It has brought attention to one among the most overlooked and chronic armed conflicts within the light world, now 50 years customary.
Since Spain’s withdrawal in 1975, Western Sahara has been entangled in a territorial dispute tantalizing an Algeria-backed nationwide liberation circulation referred to as the Polisario Entrance, Morocco and, rapid, Mauritania. Amid excessive human rights considerations, Morocco now occupies around 80% of the territory.
That is despite a landmark 1975 Global Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory map asserting that the indigenous Sahrawi of us beget the criminal to come to a choice whether to be half of Morocco or accept their beget inform in a UN-backed referendum.
The referendum, which has been many cases delayed, is intended to be particular the free expression of the need of the Sahrawi of us. Identified as the “people of the Sahara”, the Sahrawi are made up of a huge preference of tribes with a shared culture. They are a clear ethnic community from Moroccans.
Very finest phase of the Sahrawi of us proceed to live in Western Sahara underneath Morocco’s withhold an eye on. Most beget fled to Algerian refugee camps supported by the UN Refugee Company.
It was once from Algeria, in 1976, that the Polisario Entrance declared the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). The Polisario Entrance claims to signify the Sahrawi of us and is regarded as a dependable interlocutor by the UN and EU.
The SADR is now a member of the African Union and has, over the years, been recognised (and customarily un-recognised) by a huge preference of states. But it is some distance removed from being universally recognised, and Morocco and Polisario proceed to engage in armed hostilities for territorial withhold an eye on.
Very finest a referendum may presumably well resolve whether the Sahrawi need to be Moroccans or beget their beget inform. But 5 a long time on from the ICJ’s advisory map, no such referendum has been held. Meanwhile, Morocco has entrenched its withhold an eye on of Western Sahara, or what it calls the “Southern Provinces”.
It has accomplished so by changing the demographic composition of the inhabitants by civil and militia manner, and bolstering international toughen for its 2007 autonomy map. The map affords tiny self-rule for Sahrawis underneath Moroccan sovereignty, and is harshly adversarial by Polisario and Sahrawi groups.
Recognising Moroccan sovereignty
In 2020, underneath the first Trump administration, the US turned the first predominant energy to recognise the autonomy map and Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. This was once phase of a diplomatic quid pro quo for Rabat’s normalisation of ties with Israel underneath the Abraham Accords. Washington has as of late reaffirmed its trouble.
Other world avid gamers beget followed swimsuit. Spain endorsed the autonomy map in 2022, despite sustaining an ambiguous policy of “active neutrality”. And France officially recognised Morocco’s sovereignty in 2024.
In June 2025, the UK stated that the autonomy map represents “the most credible, viable and pragmatic basis for a mutually agreed and lasting solution to the Western Sahara dispute” in a joint communiqué with Morocco. This was once despite asserting later that the territory remains of “undetermined” trouble.
Rising toughen for Morocco’s sovereignty claims is driven by several geopolitical pursuits. These encompass vitality security, investment alternatives, counter-terrorism cooperation, migration administration and regional influence.
Western Sahara is rich in phosphates, fisheries and doable offshore oil and gas reserves. Major infrastructure tasks there, together with water administration, ports and renewables, are luring international investors.
Extra as of late, Morocco has expanded its focal point to tourism and transport pattern and, as considered with Nolan’s movie and its plans to co-host the 2030 Fifa men’s World Cup, apparently also the entertainment industry.
Rabat appears to be like to be the usage of pattern as a vogue of domination. And its growing financial clout and regional influence are engrossing the associated price-income calculus of world powers to rob Morocco’s aspect in this dispute. This has made toughen for criminal ideas politically inconvenient.
But criminal ideas topic and continuously toughen the Sahrawi trouble. In 2022, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights reaffirmed that Morocco’s persisted occupation violates the Sahrawi of us’s criminal to self-willpower. This criminal is a “jus cogens norm” in international legislation, that manner it is some distance binding on all states and can no longer be derogated from.
The Global Regulation Rate stipulates that third states must neither recognise scenarios constructing from breaches of such norms nor attend in their repairs. This trouble was once reaffirmed by the ICJ in July 2024. In its advisory map on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, it reiterated that states and international organisations may presumably well quiet no longer abet or attend the repairs of illegal occupations.
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This extra implies that states may presumably well quiet disengage from their investments in Western Sahara unless these were agreed with the Sahrawi of us. In October 2024, the EU’s Court of Justice annulled EU-Morocco alternate and fisheries agreements where these utilized to Western Sahara. It cited the dearth of Sahrawi consent in violation of self-willpower.
The growing diplomatic endorsement of Morocco’s autonomy map risks legitimising an illegal occupation underneath the veneer of pragmatism. The normalisation of occupation devices a troubling precedent for diverse territorial disputes all around the enviornment, from Ukraine and Palestine to Syria and Kashmir.
Some argue that Morocco’s autonomy map represents a “realistic” resolution to an intractable battle. But choices imposed without consent are no longer choices, as they lead to extra opposition and battle. Privileging energy over precept would betray the Sahrawi of us and jeopardise international legislation.
Andrea Maria Pelliconi, Lecturer in Human Rights Regulation, College of Southampton
Victor Kattan, Assistant Professor of Public Global Regulation, College of Nottingham
