Nolan 'normalised repression' by shooting The Odyssey in Western Sahara, say activists

Christopher Nolan has been criticised for shooting part of his next blockbuster in a city that has been under Moroccan occupation for 50 years.

- Sam Jones Madrid

The organisers of FiSahara - the Western Sahara international film festival - said the decision to film scenes for his adaptation of The Odyssey in Dakhla could serve to normalise decades of repression.

The British-American film-maker's take on Homer's epic, which stars Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong'o and Anne Hathaway, is due for release next year.

According to the Hollywood studio Universal, which is backing the project, the film will be "a mythic action epic shot across the world" made "using brand new IMAX film technology".

But the decision to film in the Western Saharan coastal city has provoked fierce criticism from Sahrawi activists and those who were forced to live under occupation or go into exile after Morocco annexed the country in 1976.

FiSahara's organisers said the recent presence of Nolan's high-profile cast and crew in Dakhla would help whitewash the Moroccan occupation and normalise repression.