By Robert St. Martin
Ouarzazate, Morocco (The Hollywood Times) 4/24/23 – The Kasbah of Ouarzazate, Morocco, is a very large walled town dating from the 16th century. In town, the Ouarzazate Museum of Cinema tells the story of many films shot in Morocco and especially in this part of Morocco on the edge of the desert. Northwest of Ouarzazate is Ait Ben Haddou, a fortified red earth kasbah that has been used as a location in many movies. The history of moviemaking in Ouarzazate is a long one. Movie lovers will be delighted to visit actual sets from movies like “Gladiator.” the cinema museum is housed in a former studio built in 1981. The museum exhibits a collection of old film sets, props, and cinematic equipment.
Ouarzazate is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Morocco, not only for its historical landmarks but also for its famous film studio – Atlas Studios. The studio boasts an impressive record of Hollywood and international films that were shot there, earning it the name Africa’s Hollywood and making it a top film destination in the Middle East and North Africa region.
The museum also contains huge halls, the most important one used in the scene of King Solomon. The museum has a large collection of photographic equipment, some of which were made of coal and old clothes alongside the spears and shields made of leather, iron, and gypsum.
Most of the movies filmed here were during the 1990s, most of them about Jesus and the Prophet Yusuf. Although the place might not considered scientifically a museum. But it is a special place to safeguard the city memory in the production of historical films. A studio visit is both authentic and magical, a voyage where at any moment, in each movie set, magic is at work to show the soul underlying the success of so many well-known films.
Atlas Studios is a movie wonderland, known in Ouarzazate for keeping its sets and reorganizing them in order to offer a wide range of choices to production studios, but also for letting tourists experience the unique thrill of the movies as they discover the Moroccan Hollywood: Ouarzawood.
On the highway just outside Ouarzazate is the famous Atlas Studios, which gives you the chance to see for yourself the sets where so many successful films and series have been shot, including “Gladiator,” “Prince of Persia” or “Game of Thrones.” During the guided visit, you will explore the backstage areas, hear inside anecdotes, and learn about the evolution in construction methods over time. It is not uncommon, during a studio visit, to stumble upon a film shoot in progress, coming face-to- face with real actors in costume. Nearby is another major studio – CLA Studio.
French cinema got an early start in Morocco. In 1897, Louis Lumière directed one of the first movies to be shot in Morocco. “The Moroccan Goatherd” paved the way for the production of other films in the Kingdom.
The father of cinematography, Louis Lumière, introduced the seventh art to Moroccans. The French engineer and film director, shot one of his very first movies in the Kingdom in the 1890s. His film “Le Chevrier Marocain” (Moroccan Goatherd) was a way of allowing the French to have an idea about the Kingdom, which was at the time a potential colony for Paris. Louis Lumière’s crew shot the first film footage of Morocco in 1895, wrote Susan Ossman in her book “Picturing Casablanca : Portraits of Power in a Modern City” (University of California Press, 1994).
The French were not the only party making films in Morocco. Hollywood had already established itself as the most powerful cinema industry in the world. Popular American movies in the colonial period included “Morocco” (1930) with Marlene Dietrich in the lead role, “Road to Morocco” (1942) starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Glamour and featuring Anthony Quinn and Dona Drake, “Outpost in Morocco” (1949) starring George Raft and Marie Windsor, and “Othello” (1952) directed by the legendary Orson Welles. But perhaps the most influential film during this period is “Casablanca” (1942).
These movies established Morocco as the African Hollywood where American movies have been made ever since. Here are some films which you might not know were made in Morocco: “Lawrence of Arabia”(1962), “The Man Who Would Be King” (1945), “The Mummy” (1999), “Gladiator” (2000), “Alexander” (2004), “Kingdom of Heaven” (2005), “Babel” (2006), “Sex and the City 2” (2010), “American Sniper” (2014), “Prison Break” (TV) (2016). The list is much longer.