Madrid (Spain), 18 December 2023 (SPS) - The 20th edition of the International Cinema Festival in Western Sahara (FISAHARA) came to a close on Sunday night in the Spanish capital, Madrid, with a call to support the struggle of the Sahrawi people for freedom and independence.
The closing ceremony was attended by prominent figures, including the lionesses of the independence uprising, Aminatu Haidar, Mina Abaali, Ghalia Djimi, and Sultana Khaya, as well as officials from the Polisario Front and the Sahrawi state, a large number of cinema professionals, including directors, producers, critics, journalists, politicians, and artists.
The closing ceremony featured new political, humanitarian, and human rights-oriented presentations. The hall was packed to watch the screening of the film "Sukina," which tells the story of the struggle of Sahrawi activist Sukina Jedahelou against the Moroccan occupation since the invasion, including her ordeal in prisons, and the situation of repression, siege and blackout in the large prison in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.
The closing day also featured a film by the Sahrawi artist and intellectual Mohammed Suleiman, shedding light on the experience of Sahrawi refugees with agriculture in a barren desert and how they managed to overcome the climatic conditions in their quest for resilience, through innovative methods and plans, as they witness the looting of their occupied country's resources, including phosphate, which helps in agriculture.
The event witnessed the screening of the film "the Red Carpet" by the Palestinian director, which portrays the suffering of Palestinians, drawing parallelism between the struggles of the Palestinian and Sahrawi people and the cunning methods of the Moroccan and Israeli occupiers.
The event concluded with an important discussion that shed light on the national issue, which is at a crucial and decisive turning point. It called on the peoples and governments of the world to seriously act in support of the struggles of the Sahrawi and Palestinian people by ending support for expansion, occupation, injustice, and looting, and working towards ending the suffering and achieving the legitimate rights of colonized peoples in freedom and independence.