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The 20th Edition of the Western Sahara Film Festival, "Fi-Sahara,” kicks off in Madrid

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The 20th Edition of the Western Sahara Film Festival, "Fi-Sahara,” kicks off in Madrid

Madrid (Spain), December 17, 2023 (SPS) - The 20th Edition of the Western Sahara Film Festival “Fi-Sahara” kicked off on Friday evening in the Spanish capital Madrid, amid a significant presence of figures from the worlds of politics, art, culture, and media, from Europe and Africa in particular.

The 20th edition will devote a large portion of its presentations and discussions to the struggle of Sahrawi women in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, in the presence of prominent female activists who were champions of the Independence Uprising, such as Amintu Haidar, El Ghalia Djimi, Mina Abaali and Sultana Khaia.

The opening witnessed the presentation of important speeches by officials of the Sahrawi state as well as the director of the “Fi-Sahara” Film Festival, who stressed the importance of cinema in conveying reality, especially the reality of colonized peoples, highlighting that the resistance of the Sahrawi people is indeed inspiring and transferring the struggle of the Sahrawi people to other peoples and cultures will encourage the freedom fighters of the world to join in defending the freedom of colonized peoples and strongly defend their right to freedom and independence by breaking the blackout, exposing violations, highlighting facts and exposing lies.

The 20th edition of the “Fi-Sahara” Film Festival will witness the organization of many workshops and the presentation of performances and cinematic works about the struggle of the Sahrawi people in many fields and recall the great price that the colonized peoples pay in order to gain their freedom, especially the Sahrawi and Palestinian peoples.

The launch of the 20th edition of “Fi-Sahara” witnessed the screening of a film on the reality of prominent female activists in the occupied territories, which tells the reality of repression, siege, and prevention subjected by Moroccan authorities against Sahrawi civilians, which intensified after the resumption of the armed struggle on November 13, 2020.

The screening of the film concluded with a panel discussion with the heroines of the Independence Uprising, the freedom fighters Ghalia Djimi, Amintu Haidar, Sultana Khaya and Mina Abaali, about the reality of the Independence Uprising in the occupied territories of Western Sahara and the repression and violations it is subjected to by the Moroccan occupation authorities on a systematic and daily basis.

SPS