Norwegian film producer Anders Tangen is currently participating in a highly controversial film festival in occupied Western Sahara. Speaking to Norwegian broadcaster TV 2, he defended his participation by saying that the event and the trip are intended to facilitate “meetings between people”, which he argues “have value even in areas where there are political conflicts and disagreements.”

At the same time as critical comments are being removed, the festival spent several days refusing to delete an Instagram post (to the right) falsely claiming that Spanish filmmaker Manuel Pena was participating as a jury member.

Pena is the director of the Spanish film festival FICBueu. After learning more about the context surrounding the event in Dakhla, the Spanish organisers publicly announced last week that they were withdrawing from participation.

In their statement - reproduced in full below - Pena's organisation wrote that it did not wish to contribute to legitimising or normalising the occupation of Western Sahara, and that the festival therefore could not serve as a platform for dialogue.

The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara is aware that FICBueu already on 3 June requested that Dakhla International Film Festival remove the post announcing Pena's participation.

Only five days later, on 8 June, and eight minutes after FICBueu posted a comment on the Instagram post about Pena referring to the normalisation of the occupation, the entire post was deleted.

Last year, the festival organised a competition for young Moroccan filmmakers to produce the best portrayal of the 1975 invasion days - the so-called “Green March” - during which half of Western Sahara's population was forced to flee or ended up in mass graves. The invasion was condemned by the United Nations.

Three Saharawis were killed yesterday in a Moroccan drone strike in the part of the territory that is not under Moroccan occupation.

The festival is funded by Moroccan institutions and is used by the Moroccan authorities as a tool to normalise the occupation of the territory. Tangen, known for productions such as Exit, Lilyhammer and Norsemen (Vikingane), serves on one of the festival's juries. The territory ranks among the worst in the world for political freedoms, and local filmmakers have fled into exile.

Comments posted by Saharawis on the festival's Instagram account are being removed almost immediately by the Moroccan organisers. This includes comments published beneath a post announcing the participation of Norwegian film producer Anders Tangen.

The comments questioned the festival's portrayal of Dakhla as a Moroccan city and pointed out that the event is taking place in a territory that the United Nations does not recognise as part of Morocco.

As of 8 June, only a few minutes pass between critical comments being published and their disappearance

"We received an invitation to take part in a festival that was presented to us as a space for cultural exchange, dialogue and interaction among audiovisual professionals, open to a diversity of perspectives and cinematic traditions.

However, after gaining a deeper understanding of the reality surrounding this initiative, thanks to the information and reflections shared by fellow festivals, filmmakers, activists and representatives of the Saharawi people, we consider it necessary to reconsider our position.

The festival takes place in Western Sahara, a territory occupied by the Kingdom of Morocco. In this context, cultural initiatives such as this one, even when presented as spaces for dialogue and exchange, can contribute to the normalisation of the occupation and the consolidation of the Moroccan presence in a territory where the Saharawi people systematically see their most fundamental human rights violated, including the right to organise their own cultural events free from threats or arrests.

FICBueu is a project deeply committed to human rights and social justice, values that it has promoted throughout its history. In keeping with these principles, we do not wish to be part of an initiative that contributes to the normalisation of the occupation of Western Sahara".

Published on 8 June 2026 by the Spanish film festival FICBueu, which withdrew from the Dakhla event.