Hamada
A minefield and the second largest military wall in the world separate Sidahmed, Zaara and Taher from their homeland that they only know from their parents’ stories. They belong to the Sahrawis, one of the world’s most forgotten people, abandoned in a refugee camp in the middle of the desert ever since Morocco drove them out of Western Sahara forty years ago.
With vitality and humor, HAMADA is the unusual portrait of a group of young friends living in a refugee camp in the stony Saharan desert. They spend their days fixing cars, even though they can’t really take them anywhere, fighting for political change and dreaming of a future that most likely will never happen. With all the expectations, strengths and illusions of being young they all find different ways to expand beyond the physical borders that surround them.
- "With a great soundtrack and lots of humour, Eloy Dominguez Serén’s feature-length debut takes us to the Sahrawi people who live in exile in the Sahara Desert."
- "The film combines patient, sensitive ethnographic observations with a streak of wry and off-beat humor, and the result is the kind of ostensibly “small” production which lingers in the mind long after noisier affairs have faded into oblivion."
- "He films the Sahrawi youth with empathy and sensitivity - they are lucky to have him as their cinematic advocate, and the resulting film is a treat to watch."
Awards & Recognition
IDFA
Göteborg Film Festival
Edinburgh Int'l. Film Festival