The Canberra Times
Wednesday, July 1, 2009

A documentary on Western Sahara refugees marks a low point, writes Kamal Fadel.
Last month in Sydney, the notion of democracy took a pounding. The launch of the documentary Stolen at the Sydney Film Festival marked a low point in local film culture, and signified the tenuous grip on truth we now have in contemporary society. That such a film should be financed with about $350,000 of public money – through Screen Australia – and accepted by the prestigious festival raises questions about the nature of reality and on how it is depicted in mainstream media, such as through the medium of the film documentary.
Canberra Times article.pdf
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The following are some interesting links to media coverage of the “Stolen” controversy:

·        http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2009/06/15/2598994.htm
·        http://newmatilda.com/2009/06/26/slave-story
·        http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/799/41153
·        http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2598993.htm
·        http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/film/sydney-film-festival-2009/i-am-not-a-slave-says-film-subject/2009/06/11/1244664795732.html
·        http://nevamwiti.com/2009/06/12/a-film-makers-faux-pas/
·        http://artneuro.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/slave-to-the-funding/
·        http://media.smh.com.au/entertainment/red-carpet/sahara-slavery-fiercely-denied-582354.html
·        http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/newsradio/audio/20090614-outofafrica.mp3

Since the screening of “Stolen” during the Sydney Film Festival on 11 June 2009, very important issues have come to light.
“Stolen” is seriously misleading in alleging slavery exists in the Saharawi refugee camps and it misuses the story of Fetim Sellami a Saharawi teacher who withdrew her consent, as have most of the other Saharawis who were filmed.
The following are some of the main problems with “Stolen”:
·        Most of the translation Hassania (local language) into English is completely wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

26 Jun 2009
The documentary Stolen created a storm at the Sydney Film Festival when its central character claimed she had been falsely portrayed as a slave. Now, a UNHCR spokeswoman says her interview for the film was also manipulated
Fetim Sellami immediately reminded me of the strong, gracious women I had met in the Western Sahara refugee camps in 2004 when I toured there with then-president of the NSW Upper House, Meredith Burgmann. Sitting on Burgmann’s couch in inner city Glebe — where she stayed while in Sydney — Sellami chatted happily in Hassaniya with her husband and smiled at our clumsy attempts to communicate.
However, when asked about her experience with Australian filmmakers Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw, her demeanour darkened…..(cont.).

Read Yvette’s article in The New Matilda >>

Tony Iltis, Green Left Weekly, 21 June 2009

Saharawi refugee and preschool teacher Fetim Sellami is a central character in the Australian documentary Stolen, a film set in the refugee camps in south-west Algeria that have been home to 165,000 Saharawi refugees since their country, Western Sahara, was invaded by Morocco in 1975.
However, when she and her husband, Baba Hocine Mahfoud, attended its June 11 premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, they did not receive red carpet treatment, despite the long distance they had travelled.

Read this article >>

ABC 7.30 Report
Monday, June 15, 2009 8:35 AEST

A bitter dispute has erupted over the accuracy of a taxpayer-funded feature documentary screened at the Sydney Film Festival. The film, called ‘Stolen’, features the story of Fetim Sellami and her family, who live in a refugee camp in the Algerian Sahara Desert. Fetim Sellami has been flown to Sydney by the independence movement that runs the camp, to enable her to denounce her depiction in the documentary as a slave, and the allegation that such slavery is widespread in the camps.

View Transcript >>   

Watch the story >>

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) passed the following motion in support of the Saharawi cause on Thursday 4 June 2009 during its Congress held in Brisbane on 2-4 June 2009:
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27/05/2009
US Representative Donald Payne, Member of Congress and President of the House Sub-Committee on Africa and Global Health, estimated on Tuesday that Obama’s administration will certainly have a different approach to the question of Western Sahara.

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Polisario Front’s representative in Australia and New Zealand, Kamal Fadel, animated few lectures and interviews in Australian universities and media on the occasion of the 36th anniversary of the foundation of Polisario and the beginning of the struggle for freedom and independence in Western Sahara.

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