The magic of Ouarzazate

Hollywood, Bollywood, Ouarzazate ….    

Ouarzazte? Outside of Morocco, outside of the international film industry, how many will be familiar with this city in Morocco, where film directors have gone for decades to shoot some of the best-known movies of all time? The mostrecent film to be shot there was Ghostbusters 2. One of the most memorable must be Lawrence of Arabia – to this day, semi abandoned sets from that film can be found in the surrounding desert.

Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and part of Game of Thrones have all been filmed in this ‘gateway to the desert’. And films with a biblical theme unsurprisingly have often been set there including Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ.  It hasn’t always been a happy relationship. Over the years there have been many American filmsthat have focussed on war torn Iraq or Somalia. Lazy film makers have simply used Moroccan architecture as pastiche for architecture in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. To those who live in Morocco and the Maghreb, this is obvious, as is the way that all too often these same Western film makers have tended to depict Moroccans as Arabs and Arabs as ‘the bad guys’. “You know, we are not so far from the western point of view of the 1950s – with the good, the bad and the ugly,” one Moroccan film extra told a British reporter a few years back.

Film makers have long been attracted to this part of Morocco because of the desert landscapes, the sea and the mountains, often snow topped mountains so that you could be in the Himalayas. Makers of the British comedy classic, ‘Carry on up the Khyber’, must have rued the day that instead of Ouarzazte they found themselves filming, in winter, in freezing, wet, north Wales. Ouarzazte also has that other magical quality, light. It also has many experienced film extras, some of whomstart growing their beards if they know that a big film maker is coming to town. Morocco is also safe, and comparatively cheap – although in these straightened times it is increasingly expensive for some film companies who think that they can achieve the same quality by not leaving the studio and relying on high tech filming techniques. 

The Moroccan government helps fund local productions, until recently some 15 to 25 or so a year and has been keen to provide training and assistance to those who will find work when the film makers are in town. The idea has been to keep them coming back. More recently however this has dropped to four a year. Many of the big foreign film companies complain that it has become too expensive to film there. But what they mean is that they don’t even want to pay 300 dirams or $30 dollars a day for an extra. 

Perhaps audiences will start craving the real landscapes, people and towns, and more films will start being made again. But in the meantime, Ouarzazate is savouring a new role – as one of Morocco’s new solar towns. Before long, it may be part of the network of solar towns that will be feeding energy to the Maghreb and beyond. We can but hope that this won’t spoil the view. 

*Mark Seddon is a former Speechwriter to UN Secretary-General Ban ki moon & former Adviser to the Office of the President of the UN General Assembly