Movies Similar to Smiles of the desert

Heiresses(2009)

Two planes take off at the same time headed in opposite directions. Fatimetu and Ejehla. Two distinct lives destined to follow similar paths. One past desired, but fuzzy, and a future. One inheritance, becoming more and more fragile. “Heirs” gathers the testimony of different generations of women who live within and outside of the camps and paints a profile of the present situation in which these Sahrawi women live and the future they've inherited, living in an orphan-like territory separated from their homeland for more than 33 years…

The show(2012)

Jean Rouch shot La Pyramide Humaine in 1961. We discovered it the summer of 2012. This treasure draws suggestive connections between a politic conflict and the art of creation by itself. That summer we were in charge of shooting the staying of Sahrawi children with host families from Barcelona during the summer holidays. Nothing seemed to us more inspiring than get deep into the essence of that movie. And we dare to play. It is an audiovisual experiment, by way of an imperfect tale, with three protagonists: a Sahrawi friend in exile, a group of kids from the desert and a play.

Drops in the desert(2005)

A documentary which explains, through the experience of hosting a Sahrawi child for the summer, visiting the camps and speaking with teachers, politicians and doctors… the story of the Sahrawi people and the reasons behind the conflict. People from diverse geographical locations in Spain give us their opinion about the conflict.

Daia Sahara(2015)

Daia Sahara is a trip to near and distant realities, a trip full of emotions, sensations and experiences, which despite their proximity, are alien to us but which build an energetic bond between Spanish families and Sahrawi refugee families.

Little grains of sand(2010)

A documentary about the lives of Sahrawi refugees in the Tindouf camps (Algeria). A didactic video for families hosting Sahrawi minors in the Vacations in Peace programme with the objective of them learning and being introduced to the Saharwi culture and customs so that they see what life is like in the camps for these children.

Daughters of sand(2023)

Benda, a young Sahrawi woman in the diaspora wonders about the future of her people's children and women. We accompany her on an emotional journey to the refugee camps to see the more human face of the conflict. The film leaves the political as a mere context to focus on the dreams and drama of a people determined in their struggle to return home.

State of rest(2022)

Salka was born as a refugee in the Sahara desert, and grew up in Italy by chance: she was one of the so-called "Little Peace Ambassadors". Sahrawis have been sending to Europe their children for decades, to show the world the injustice they suffer. A 2700 km long mined wall across the desert, and there's no mention of it even in UN resolutions on Western Sahara. This former spanish colony, just in front of Canary Islands, is occupied by Morocco since 1975. In 2011 I spent 5 weeks in the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, outer south-west of Algeria. This is where the Sahrawi's escape from their war-devastated land stopped, though none of them imagined they would stay there so long. When I met Salka, her foster italian mother Carmen and her mother Aisha, I had finally found what I had been looking for: state of rest began to take shape. Neither Salka nor I were born when it all began. Western Sahara has been occupied by Morocco and plundered by many others for over 40 years

Bachir in Wonderland(2018)

Bachir dreams of swimming in the sea, but he lives in a refugee camp in the desert. Despite the fact that he has no passport, he is offered the chance of a lifetime: he may be allowed to go on summer camp to Spain. Will his wish be fulfilled?

Susu's journey(2003)

Suso is a Sahrawi child. He has put his name down for a humanitarian aid program that allows saharawi children to spend a holiday away form the refugee camp where they lives. For the first time in his life he will see the grass, the mountains, the sea ...

Vacations in Peace(2014)

As happens every year, the parents of the Association of Friends with the Sahrawi People of Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona) gather to welcome a group of Sahrawi children who come to spend two months with them each summer. The strong emotional ties that develop between them help them to overcome challenges such as cultural adaptation.

Atu, the face of a forgotten nation(2019)

Atu is a 12-year-old Saharawi girl who comes to Valencia every summer to escape the suffocating desert summer in exile. Two opposing worlds between a conflict that has driven hundreds of thousands of people away from Western Sahara forcing them to live in southwestern Algeria. At her young age, with little resources and no homeland, she courageously faces the future.

Lejsara, a history between two worlds(2020)

Lejsara is a documentary about two worlds: Tinduf and Mallorca. The main character, Lejsara, is twelve years old and, thanks to the ‘Holidays in Peace’ project, she’s going to spend her third and last summer in Spain with her host family. The film asks whether this program lets their children taste a piece of candy and then takes it away from them.

Between the sea and the desert(2009)

Abba Abidin, a 24-year old Sahrawi, has lived his entire adolescence in Spain. He hasn’t seen his family for many years, as they live in a camp for Sahrawi refugees. This winter, Abba hopes to return to Tindouf, in southern Algeria, in search of his anticipated reunion with his family and also with rediscovering himself and his roots.

The whisper of the wind(2020)

Tahar is a 20-year-old Sahrawi man who lives in the Basque Country. However, his family continues to live in the Tindouf refugee camp. One day, he receives a call from there: his father is dying.

Coría and the sea(2014)

This is a story about women who are fighters, tenacious, hopeful, active women…who were capable of lifting, from nothingness, in the harshest landscape of the world, life. They are the Sahrawi women. 40 years ago, they were forced into exile; the men of this region, marched to war and the women created “temporary cities”: The Refugee Camps. They invented a new day to day life which made possible a sustainable existence and a hope, of one day returning home. Coría every night dreams of the sea; the majestic image of its water, the sound of its waves, are the echoes that join the people with their homeland. The will beats in the hearts of the Sahrawi women who maintain their unbreakable spirit, ever moving forward.

A Day in the Life of a Bull-Dyke(1995)

A Day in the Life of a Bull-Dyke follows a big boned butch into skirmishes, drag, and the arms of a beautiful recruit. The public and private lives of this "strange animal" are explored with the reverence and glee found in the educational exposés like Reefer Madness and bad-boy films like Rebel without a Cause. However, because this fictionalized lesbian history is a first-person narrative, it is filled with all the joy, pain, and ambivalence each of us experiences while negotiating a marginalized identity.

Ku'damm 63 - Die Dokumentation(2021)

Goering's Catalogue: A Collection of Art and Blood(2021)

For more than a decade, Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, Adolf Hitler's right-hand man during the infamous Third Reich, assembled a collection of thousands of works of art that were meticulously catalogued.

Road for Two(2021)

Thirty-five years after their first meeting, which would change their lives, Argentine guitarist Lucio Yanel and his Brazilian pupil Yamandu Costa reunited to redo, on a trip, the paths that originally led Yanel to the interior of Rio Grande do Sul. Aboard a motor home, with his guitars and memories, master and disciple cross the border of Brazil towards Corrientes, the Argentine's homeland, reflecting on the transformations brought about by the inexorable passage of time.

Edna(2021)

On the edge of the Transbrasiliana highway, Edna lives in a land in ruins, built on massacres.