{"id":6061,"date":"2025-07-18T16:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T16:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/?p=6061"},"modified":"2025-07-18T16:27:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T16:27:19","slug":"adala-uk-sends-formal-letter-to-uk-government-objecting-to-filming-of-the-odyssey-in-occupied-western-sahara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/?p=6061","title":{"rendered":"Adala UK Sends Formal Letter to UK Government Objecting to Filming of\u00a0The Odyssey\u00a0in Occupied Western Sahara"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Adala UK has sent a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Letter-to-the-DCMS.pdf\">formal letter<\/a><\/strong> to the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), raising serious concerns over the filming of the upcoming Hollywood production\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tvshowbiz\/article-14471211\/amp\/Matt-Damon-looks-unrecognisable-long-grey-beard-arrives-Greece-film-Christopher-Nolans-250million-adaptaion-Odyssey.html\"><strong>The Odyssey<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0<strong>Dakhla<\/strong>, a city located in\u00a0<strong>occupied Western Sahara<\/strong>.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The letter highlights that Western Sahara remains a non-self-governing territory under international law, and that the United Kingdom does\u00a0<strong>not recognize it Moroccan sovereignty<\/strong>\u00a0over the region. Filming in Dakhla without the consent of the Saharawi people, and without acknowledging the territory\u2019s disputed legal status, risks legitimising the ongoing illegal occupation and undermines the Saharawi people&#8217;s right to self-determination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its letter, Adala UK called on the UK Government and relevant institutions including the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), UK cinemas, film distributors, and public broadcasters to refrain from screening or promoting&nbsp;<em>The Odyssey<\/em>&nbsp;within the United Kingdom unless the filmmakers publicly address and rectify the legal and ethical implications of filming in an occupied territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The letter also references the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/?p=6029\">recent response from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to Adala UK, which reaffirmed the UK\u2019s support for a\u00a0<strong>negotiated settlement under UN auspices<\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0<strong>right of the Saharawi people to self-determination<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adala UK remains committed to ensuring that international law is respected and that cultural and commercial activities do not contribute to the normalization or legitimisation of unlawful occupation and documented human rights abuses in Western Sahara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>read the full letter: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Letter-to-the-DCMS.pdf\">here<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adala UK has sent a formal letter to the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), raising serious concerns over the filming of the upcoming Hollywood production\u00a0The Odyssey\u00a0in\u00a0Dakhla, a city located in\u00a0occupied Western Sahara. The letter highlights that Western Sahara remains a non-self-governing territory under international law, and that the United Kingdom does\u00a0not recognize it Moroccan sovereignty\u00a0over the region. Filming in Dakhla without the consent of the Saharawi people, and without acknowledging the territory\u2019s disputed legal status, risks legitimising the ongoing illegal occupation and undermines the Saharawi people&#8217;s right to self-determination. In its letter, Adala UK called on the UK Government and relevant institutions including the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), UK cinemas, film distributors, and public broadcasters to refrain from screening or promoting&nbsp;The Odyssey&nbsp;within the United Kingdom unless the filmmakers publicly address and rectify the legal and ethical implications of filming in an occupied territory. The letter also references the\u00a0recent response from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)\u00a0to Adala UK, which reaffirmed the UK\u2019s support for a\u00a0negotiated settlement under UN auspices\u00a0and the\u00a0right of the Saharawi people to self-determination. Adala UK remains committed to ensuring that international law is respected and that cultural and commercial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,97],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6061"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6063,"href":"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6061\/revisions\/6063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adalauk.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}