The fifth Algiers International Film Festival (FICA) opened Friday evening with screening of Spanish Alvaro Longoria's committed documentary, "Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony," which deals with the struggle for the independence of Western Sahara, a territory occupied by Morocco since 1975.
Organized on December 18 at El Mouggar movie theatre, the first day of the event will feature a production which sheds light on Western Sahara conflict, by following Spanish producer and actor Javier Bardem in his attempt to mobilize public opinion in Spain and the United States for the independence of the territory.
"Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony " (2012) follows Javier Bardem from his trip to Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria, in 2008, for the Fisahara Film Festival, "until his address before United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) in 2012.
The documentary includes interviews with Polisario Front officials, refugees from the Saharawi camps in Algeria, human rights activists and various European and US personalities (diplomats, journalists and politicians).
The documentary's director also uses animation to explain how Moroccan colonization of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, began, emphasizing the complicity of Western countries and the sufferings of Saharawi people.
The last part of the documentary stresses torture and Moroccan police suppression in occupied Western Sahara as well as the need to extend the prerogatives of MINURSO (United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara) to monitoring human rights in the territory.