Movies Similar to Waiting for the UN

Hamada(2019)

Filled with vitality, humor and unexpected situations, Hamada paints an unusual portrait of a group of young friends living in a refugee camp in the middle of nowhere. Western Sahara is known as “the last colony in Africa” and this conflict is the longest and one of the least known ongoing disputes in the continent, but the Sahrawi people refuse to become invisible.

1958: Those Who Said No(2018)

On October 4, 2018, France celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Fifth Republic. It is a republic born in the throes of the Algerian War and one which—from the day it was founded by General de Gaulle until the presidency of a very Jupiterian Emmanuel Macron—has been assailed as a “Republican monarchy” by partisans of a more assertive parliamentarian state. By revisiting the struggle of those who dared oppose the new regime — only to suffer a crushing defeat on September 28, 1958, when they were barely able to garner 20% of the vote against the constitutional text — this film shines a powerful new light on the origins of the Fifth Republic and its consequences for the next 60 years. It is a constitutional debate that planted the seeds for a complete upheaval of the French political landscape, on the left in particular, and set the country in motion toward what would be called the Union of the Left.

Robbed of Truth(2011)

This is the true story of Fetim Salam, a Saharawi refugee falsely portrayed as a slave in the Australian documentary 'Stolen'. Australian filmmakers, Violeta Ayala and Daniel Fallshaw, travel to the Saharawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria in 2007 and claim to discover 20,000 slaves in the camps run by the independence movement Polisario Front. Refugees are outraged for being portrayed as slaves, and humanitarian aid workers are incredulous about these allegations as they know the camps intimately. Filmmaker Carlos Gonzalez retraces their steps in search of the truth and finds a web of lies, misinformation and Moroccan operatives reshaping the truth.

Catalonia: Spain on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown(2017)

A serious crisis has shaken Spain since the referendum on self-determination and the proclamation of the independence of Catalonia by the government of Carles Puigdemont, bold actions firmly fought by the Spanish government by applying the constitutional article that allows it to place a region under guardianship. While Spain is on the verge of implosion, Europe is holding its breath.

The Devil's Share(2018)

Quebec, on the cusp of the 1960s. The province is on the brink of momentous change. Deftly selecting clips from nearly 200 films from the National Film Board of Canada archives, director Luc Bourdon reinterprets the historical record, offering us a new and distinctive perspective on the Quiet Revolution.

Breaking Point: Canada/Quebec - The 1995 Referendum(2005)

BREAKING POINT brings viewers back to those tense, critical moments when Canada's future as a country was at stake.

Maastricht, 30 ans après(2022)

Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony(2012)

The political upheaval in North Africa is responsibility of the Western powers —especially of the United States and France— due to the exercise of a foreign policy based on practical and economic interests instead of ethical and theoretical principles, essential for their international politic strategies, which have generated a great instability that causes chaos and violence, as occurs in Western Sahara, the last African colony according to the UN, a region on the brink of war.

De Gaulle, le géant aux pieds d'argile(2012)

Lost land(2011)

Straddling a 2,400-kilometer-long wall constructed by the Moroccan army, the Western Sahara is today divided into two sections — one occupied by Morocco, the other under the control of the Sahrawi National Liberation Movement’s Polisario Front. Drawing from stories of flight, exile, interminable waiting and the arrested, persecuted lives on both sides of that wall, this film bears witness to the Sahrawi people, their land, their entrapment in other people’s dreams. In an esthetic that sublimates the real, Lost Land resonates like a score that juxtaposes sonorous landscapes, black-and-white portraits and nomadic poetics.

Monsieur(2003)

Un viaje hacia nosotros(2021)

Spanish actor Pepe Viyuela embarks on a personal journey on the trail of his grandfather Gervasio, a soldier in the Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War.

Sand compass(2007)

A Crew of Mexican filmmakers decide to cross the world to go in search of a nomad who would guide them in the sea of sand, to find the cave of the djina (a devil) but on the way they find an exiled country, that asks for help them to spread there existence and find a way to prevent that the organizations of United Nations and NGOS do not forget them. It is a history full of magic and feeling, wrapped in the colouring landscapes of the great desert of the Sahara. Among the liberated territories there are 10 million mines, temperatures of up to 60 ° c and little food to testify the wealths of a great people there culture, traditions, tragedy and there similarities with the rest of us.

"1-O"(2018)

On September 6, 2017, the Catalan regional government called an independence referendum. This propagandistic documentary by the Catalan government collects the experiences of an illegal referendum that led to the virtual independence of Spanish territory and the biggest constitutional crisis in Spain since 1981

Sahrawi people(1977)

Documentary about the arduous early years of the Sahrawi cause (1977)

Hammada(2009)

Dadah, a Sahrawi boy living in the Dakhla refugee camp, knows nothing beyond life in the desert, the sand-filled air, the ever-present dunes on the horizon, school, games, the sullen world of the conversations that adults have while they make tea… Through film, he will discover very different worlds.

Sahrawis, a glimpse into exile(2009)

Filmed in the camps of Sahrawi refugees living in West-Algeria and Tifaritti (the liberated territory). The narrator, in his multiple interviews, examines the reality of these people who have been condemned to silence in exile. This is a direct and concise documentary that gives the refugees the opportunity to express themselves, as well as hearing from other people implicated in the conflict.

Desert rose(2004)

Through images and testimonies of Sahrawi women, this film introduces us to the situation and the living conditions the Sahrawi people have been subjected to since, in 1975, Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco and thousands of men, women and children were forced to flee and look for refuge in Algerian territory, in the inhumane "hamada" (rocky desert) of Tindouf. Sahrawi women, exiled to the refugee camps of Tindouf since 1975, have been the driving force behind a genuine revolution in all areas of Sahara society. They have carried out the miracle of reviving the spirit of a devastated community in the middle of a hostile, rocky desert.

Belgha, the alive memory(2008)

Selma Mohamed Brahim, known as Belgha, lives in the Dajla Saharaui refugee camp in Southern Algeria. He has dedicated his life to preserving the Saharaui culture and identity, because he knows that a nation without culture is a lost nation, and he is making every effort to convey to younger generations all the things they haven't experienced.

Tebraa, portraits of Sahrawi women(2007)

Tebraa is the song of the women of the Sahara desert. Songs of love or lamentation that they sing when they are alone. This collective documentary made by a group of Andalusian women tells the life and injustices that Sahrawi women experience in the adverse conditions of exile and in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.