Christopher Nolan sparks controversy by filming 'The Odyssey' in Western Sahara.

The International Film Festival of Western Sahara ( FiSahara ) has issued a statement accusing director Christopher Nolan and the stars of his new film, The Odyssey , of contributing “to Morocco’s repression of the Sahrawi people” by filming part of the film “in occupied territory” and demanding that he immediately suspend filming. The distributor of the film, which is scheduled for theatrical release on July 17, 2026, put tickets on sale last week for the first weekend of screenings in 26 theaters in 70mm IMAX format and sold out in a single day.

“Joining Sahrawi and international human rights activists in calling on director Christopher Nolan to suspend production of his highly anticipated film The Odyssey in the city of Dakhla in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara,” FiSahara’s statement reads, urging Nolan and his crew, specifically mentioning stars Matt Damon and Zendaya , to “stop filming in Dakhla and stand in solidarity with the Sahrawi people who have been under military occupation for 50 years and are routinely imprisoned and tortured for their peaceful struggle for self-determination.”

The statement notes that Nolan, Zendaya, and Damon were spotted arriving in Dakhla around July 17 and denounces the Moroccan media's claim that they were in "the southern provinces of Morocco." However, the festival reminds us that " Western Sahara is classified as a 'non-self-governing territory' by the United Nations."

“By filming part of The Odyssey in an occupied territory classified as a 'desert for journalism' by Reporters Without Borders , Nolan and his team, perhaps unknowingly and unwittingly, are contributing to Morocco's repression of the Sahrawi people and to the Moroccan regime's efforts to normalize its occupation of Western Sahara,” denounces María Carrión, executive director of FiSahara.

“We're sure that if they understood the full implications of filming a high-profile movie in a territory whose Indigenous peoples are unable to make their own films about their stories under occupation, Nolan and his team would be horrified,” he notes.

Inspired by Homer's classic text, The Odyssey stars Matt Damon and Tom Holland as Odysseus and his son Telemachus. Rounding out the cast are Lupita Nyong'o as Clytemnestra, Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, Charlize Theron as the sorceress Circe, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, and Zendaya as the goddess Athena.

The cast of the new film from the director of Oppenheimer and Interstellar also includes Jon Bernthal, Mia Goth, Samantha Morton, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Corey Hawkins, Bill Irwin, Jesse García, Will Yun Lee, Nick Tarabay, Jimmy Gonzales, Logan Marshall-Green, and Maurice Compte, among others.