A new film that had its world premiere at this week’s Sydney Film Festival is being called a hoax. Directed by Aussies Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw, the documentary Stolen purports to tell the story of Black refugee Algerians taken into slavery by neighboring white Arabian bandits.
But in an unexpected 11th-hour twist, two of the documentary’s main protagonist, Fetim Sellami, insist this is entirely untrue.
In a filmed statement — which is included in Stolen — Sellami claims the allegations of slavery are baseless and the filmmakers are not to be trusted.
The film-makers, naturally, stand by their work — and suggest that Sellami’s accusations center around fear of retribution from members of the Polisario Liberation Front, the political organisation that controls the refugee camp in which Sellimi lives.
We’re staying on this story.
I went to the screening just by chance and was the best film at the festival. BRILLIANT
Well done guys!
good to hear
That there are still slaves in the Sahara is not even a secret. The Sudanese government has been using slave labor in its campaign against the pagan south. In Niger and Mali and Mauritania, the Moors and the northern Tuareg have never given up their ways, and while they seldom use the word slave openly, the practice remains. Mauritania officially declared slavery illegal in 1980, but at the time there were an estimated one hundred thousand “haratin slaves” in the country and best estimates are that the numbers have barely changed. There are, reportedly, still slave markets in the Adrar area, northeast of Nouakchott in Mauritania.
Indeed, in parts of the desert slavery is still the natural order of things. Those few slaves who escape, either by running away or by dint of a soft master and a hard education, find only incredulity when they tell their stories.
http://www.ralphmag.org/BU/slavery.html
true that
hope this movie can make a difference
Yes the film is a hoax. It has been confirmed see:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2633252.htm
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/timors-link-to-a-saharan-struggle-20090721-dryz.html
I am black and very proud to be. My parents are from Jamaica and I was born in the UK.
I found the film extremely compelling and there were so many black people in it talking about their experiences with regards to slavery.
It was clear that wasn’t the slavery practised in the 18th or 19th century in the Americas or Europe. This is a lot more hidden, has developed in a different way but is as repressive and destructive of families as any other form of slavery.
This story was extremely painful to me because I am a descendant of slaves.
I speak Spanish so I could experience first hand the testimonies of the black people and see the pain in their faces. There were young girls expressing fear and anger to live in slavery.
The film is well crafted, interesting and really presents the situation in an unsentimental way.
STOLEN will have it’s international premier at the TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL as one of the 20 films in the Real to Reel section that presents the very best in non-fiction cinema from around the globe that will challenge, inspire, inform, entertain and move audiences.
http://www.tiff.net/filmsandschedules/films/stolen
You can also watch the trailer at:
http://www.thetruthaboutstolen.com
This is a summary of a document prepared by the Australia Western Sahara Association (AWSA). It is a detailed report and critique of a STOLEN, investigating the questionable methods and unethical practices from pre to post production used in the making of the film. The document can be accessed here: http://awsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/critique-of-stolen-ii.pdf
u INACCURATE SUBTITLES & VOICE OVER : the translation of the dialogue (which is roughly one third Spanish and two thirds Hassaniya, the local dialect of Arabic) is seriously misleading in places, seemingly invented to suit the plot.
u CONSENT : the main subject Fetim Sellami, the alleged slave, realised that she and her family were being manipulated to speak on camera about slavery and their words were mistranslated and taken out of context. Feeling insulted and greatly hurt by the allegation, she withdrew all interviews with her and her family from the film. This was not done. None of the participants has ever signed a release form.
u REWARDS : the filmmakers deny that people interviewed were paid with money, however, generous gifts were given by the filmmakers to the subjects, (eg Matala and friends received a 2nd hand car). Violeta Ayala, one of the directors of the film admitted giving money to the Saharawis who came to Mauritania. Three young men, who travelled to Mauritania on a second visit, say they were paid 4000 euros .
u MISUSE OF MATERIAL Instances include: using copyright material without permission, use of interviews without consent, misuse of an interview with a United Nations High Commission for Refugees staff member, misuse of the US-based translator’s certificate. These are serious professional concerns.
Oumar Sy, Mauritanian translator in New York, asked by the film-makers to certify the translations in the film, wrote on 9 July 2009:
“I would like to reaffirm that I did not certify that the translations, from Hassaniya into English of the final version of the film called “”Stolen” directed by Ms. Violeta Ayala and Mr. Dan Fallshaw and the produced by Mr. Tom Zubrycki, are correct.”
HE Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta, President of Timor Leste, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, when asked about Stolen in Melbourne 23 July 2009 said:
“I was in the camps and I am not naïve – I am always a very curious person… and at the Sahara camp I went visiting people in tents and talked with so many people……this is the first time I heard of it in the camps. It is totally an absurdity and made up, I guarantee you.
The Polisario is one of the most genuine liberation movements and very humanitarian.
I know when someone is deceiving me. I know how to ask questions and I would never, never turn a blind eye if I knew of any abuses in the Saharawi camps because I would be an accomplice by supporting a movement that I knew was committing these barbarities so it is totally unheard of. My experience being there – the experience of the UNHCR, International Red Cross, numerous NGOs, European parliamentarians, US Congressmen – was that no one was ever told about this.”
Mr. Antonio Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in a letter to the President of the Saharawi Republic, Mohamed Abdelaziz, 22 June 2009:
“We regret that in the film of Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw, the comments of an official of the HCR have been presented out of their context. In the complete interview, of about 90 minutes long, with Mrs. Aboubacar, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Bureau, the latter reiterated strongly that if certain residual practices of slavery could still prevail in the sub-region of West Africa, she had no knowledge of such practices in the refugee camps of Tindouf.
The HCR has not seen the film before its release, and has not approved its content or conclusions either. The film does not reproduce faithfully the opinions of the HCR.
As you are aware, the HCR has established for a long time a presence in the refugee camps of Tindouf. It does not have any information that practices similar to slavery have taken place in the camps. In fact, no occurrence of this practice has been brought to the attention of the HCR. Had that been the case, I can assure you that the HCR would have raised the matter with the authorities concerned.”
Ms. Ursula Aboubakar, UNHCR, Deputy Director, Bureau for Middle East and North Africa, wrote to the filmmakers on 21 Jun 2009:
“I understood that despite my written request to you for my formal clearance to use my voice or face in your documentary in the Tindouf camps you went ahead without my clearance, which I formally want to protest about. The release form you gave me for my signature is still with me.
Although I did not see the final version as shown in the Australia film festival, I had the opportunity through other channels to view the one you showed to our colleagues in the NY office which also may have ended up being the final version.
I strongly protest about the way you manipulated my one hour (or longer) interview in your film and the short compilation of sentences (in 2 minutes) of what I said.”
http://www.awsa.org.au
The post written above is part of the ongoing campaign of the Polisario to stop the film, go to the following site to find the answers for every accusation. http://www.thetruthaboutstolen.com/facts
In the following video you will find a 10 min compilation of Ms. Ursula Aboubacar interview were she talked extensively about slavery in the camps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W_2TpZBIxU
Stolen (Recommended)
Documenting a story about a reunion, after 30 years, between a mother and daughter in a Polisario refugee camp in the Western Sahara, Australian-based filmmakers Violeta Ayala and Daniel Fallshaw stumble on another — more profoundly unsettling and deeply concealed — about systemic slavery in Western Africa, a practice denied by governments and refugee caretakers alike, as well as by many of its victims. The film moves into political thriller territory when the filmmakers are made suddenly aware that the conversations they have taped put the lives of their subjects in peril, and they themselves have become prey to sinister political and cultural forces. Riveting stuff. Tonight 7 p.m., AMC, 10 Dundas St. E. Greg Quill