Festival de Cine / Film Festival: Wilaya

Wednesday, April 8, 2015 4:30 PM to 7:10 PM EDT
Johnson Center, F

Fatimetu is born to a Sahrawi family in a Saharan refugee camp in Algeria and later sent to live with foster parents in Spain. After the death of her mother, she returns to the camp. She has been absent for sixteen years. Her brother now expects her to stay and look after her sister Hayat, who has difficulty walking. Fatimetu, who unlike the other women can drive a car, finds work transporting animals, meat, and bread from one administrative district to another. In time, the Sahrawi people become accustomed to the woman who tears about the desert without a hijab in her beaten up jeep. But Fatimetu is torn between life in the desert and her memories of her family and friends in Spain.

With unprecedented access to the Sahrawi community, Pedro Pérez Rosado, provides a voice to this unrepresented group of refugees and their struggle for independence. The outstanding performance of newcomer Nadhira Mohamed, who was herself born in a refugee camp in Tinduf, landed her the Best Actress award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

 (Description from Pradga Films, one of the sponsors of the festival). Original version with English subtitles. Trailer.

The movie will be introduced via Skype by María Sánchez García, a Spanish contemporary artist, blogger, and new media and art expert. María has served as Country Director for In Medi Terraneum and as staff member for Artifariti in the Sahrawi refugee camps. She has also worked as an EVS (European Voluntary Service) volunteer for the project #savegendermuseum in the Ukraine. Her latest blog, Voluntariado irracional, presents her experiences in the Ukraine.

Sponsored by Pragda Films, Spain Arts & Culture, Department of Modern & Classical Languages, Film & Media Studies, University Life, Hispanic Culture Review, Latin American Studies, University Libraries & WGMU Radio at George Mason University..