Stolen (2009 documentary film)

Stolen is a 2009 Australian documentary film that uncovers slavery in the Sahrawi refugee camps controlled by the Polisario Front located in Algeria and in the disputed territory of Western Sahara controlled by Morocco, written and directed by Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw. It had its world premiere at the 2009 Sydney Film Festival, where a controversy started after one of the participants in the documentary, Fetim, a black Sahrawi, was flown to Australia by the Polisario Liberation Front to say she wasnt a slave. The POLISARIO, avowing that it doesnt condone slavery and needing to safeguard its image on the world stage to support its independence fight, began an international campaign against the film. It put out its own video denouncing Stolen, in which several people who Ayala and Fallshaw interviewed say they were coerced or paid by the Australian duo. On May the 2nd 2007, while filming in the refugee camps Ayala and Fallshaw were detained by the Polisario Front and Minurso and the Australian ministry of foreign affairs negotiated their release. The Polisario Front officials criticised the interest the two journalists took in black members of the Sahrawi population, Reporters Without Borders has learned. Ayala told the press freedom organisation that she saw cases of enslavement. The fact that they are fighting for their independence does not mean that Polisarios leaders can allow themselves to commit such human rights violations, she said. It is our duty as journalists to denounce such practices. We originally went there to work on the problem of separated families. But during our stay, we witnessed scenes of slavery.

Stolen premiered nationwide on Februaryon PBS, 2013 with a special report carried by journalist Phillip Martin that included an interview led by WGBH journalist Callie Crossley with the directors, followed by a panel discussion whether slavery exists in Western Sahara with Eric Goldstein Deputy Director, Middle East and North Africa Division Human Rights Watch, Madeline Campbell Professor of Urban Studies, Worcester State University and Bakary Tandia Mauritanian AntiSlavery Activist.Is it true my white grandmother beat you as a child? asks 15yearold Leil. Her mother, Fetim, looks at her hard, still chewing her lunch. They sit at a table, a TV behind them, as well as a doorway opening onto a bright white daylight. Leil continues, Violeta already knows, as the camera cuts to filmmaker Violeta Ayala, seated across from them. Her face turns cloudy as she listens Youll be in trouble, by saying we were beaten, cautions Fetim. Again, the camera shows her instructing her daughter, Its always been that slaves are beaten from a young age. ........

Source: Wikipedia