Life is waiting

Director: Iara Lee

Production: 2015, Arabic, Spanish, English & French with English & Dari Subtitle, 59 min, USA

Camera: Yeray Martin Perdomo, Eduardo Souto Fraguas/Editor: Martin Eller

 

Short synopsis: Forty years after its people were promised freedom by departing Spanishrulers, the Western Sahara remains Africa’s last colony. While a UN-brokered ceasefire put an end to armed hostilities in the territory in 1991, the Sahrawi people have continued to live under the Moroccan armed forces’ oppressive occupation, and what peace exists in the area is fragile at best. Tens of thousands of Sahrawis have fled to neighboring Algeria, where over 125,000 refugees still live in camps that were intended to be temporary. In spite of these difficulties, a new movement, with youth at its center, is rising to challenge human rights abuses and to demand the long-promised referendum on freedom. Today’s generation of young activists is deploying creative nonviolent resistance for the cause of self-determination. In doing so, they have persevered against a torrent of conflicting forces. While risking torture and disappearance at the hands of Moroccan authorities, they are also pushing back against those who have lost patience with the international community and are ready to launch another guerrilla war.

Director’s Biography: Iara Lee, a Brazilian of Korean descent, is an activist, film producer and director of SYNTHETIC PLEASURES, MODULATIONS, CULTURES OF RESISTANCE, THE SUFFERING GRASSES, K2 AND THE INVISIBLE FOOTMEN and LIFE IS WAITING: Referendum and Resistance in Western Sahara. She is also founder of Cultures of Resistance Network, an organization that connects and supports activists, agitators, educators, and artists to build a more just and peaceful world through creative resistance and nonviolent action.