In 1978 when I was…well…a lot younger than I am now, growing up in the rural South-west of England was an idyllic if slightly dull experience. The nearest town of any size was Exeter, some 40 miles to the south-east, which was accessed via a tortuous, winding road where progress was often blighted by farm vehicles, herds of sheep and cattle, and floods. We took family trips to Exeter two to three times a year solely for the purpose of buying new clothes and always on a Saturday (how miserable), although one could argue that these fledgling adventures did stimulate in me a desire to experience a world outside my own narrow borders. London, however, remained an elusive dream while the USA might as well have been on a different planet. That said, the USA did influence my young life – partly through an upsurge in TV programming that beamed its way onto our flickering television sets, but mostly through the movies. And in 1978 rumours trickled down even to my rural little backwater that a new kind of movie was coming to town, the Avatar of its age.
I queued up with the other youngsters from our town and, having fought for my ticket, rushed to find the best seat in the theatre. And there I sat in the darkness waiting – wanting – to be spellbound. Eventually the screen curtains parted and the opening titles loomed large above me: ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…’ they began. We were off: two hours (plus a 10 minute intermission to change the rolls of film) of action, adventure, and never before seen special effects. I emerged from the theatre desperate to be like Luke Skywalker, escaping my quiet existence and tackling the likes of Darth Vader and the evil Galactic Empire.
You may be wondering, dear reader, why this post begins with such a lazy stroll down memory lane? Well part of Star Wars was filmed in the desert around Tozeur. Clearly, I had to make the pilgrimage. The question is whether my visit would rekindle that childhood sense of wonder first awakened in me a long time ago in a movie theatre far, far away…
Tozeur is our first Star Wars hot spot. There are a few others, I just haven’t been brave enough to mention them to Christi yet. I say ‘our’ first hot spot, although it’s fair to say Christi does not really share my enthusiasm for this journey of re-discovery.
To back up for a moment, I had assumed on arrival in Tunisia that Star Wars would be an immense tourist draw. I actually spoke to the tour agencies in Tunis airport, but the agents merely shook their heads. I thought it must be a language issue, but sadly I was wrong. There is absolutely zero Star Wars merchandise available – not a T-shirt, mug, or even a postcard. Even if George Lucas (creator of the Star Wars franchise) has the worldwide merchandising rights to the six-movie saga sewn up, you can normally rely on the ingenuity of Africans to rip-off the official merchandise, but apparently not in this case.
Our hotel the Residence Warda in Tozeur does offer a Star Wars tour of sorts but they are vague on the details. I travel hopefully, but not confidently. We begin our mini Star Wars adventure at Chott Gharsa, where Chott means dried out salt lake. The salt lakes here are not as abundant in the condiment as the Salar de Uyuni; here it is more of a thin crust. It is, nonetheless, a beautiful vast nothingness framed by rich rust-colored sandstone hills,which the guide assures us featured in the movie. Our driver is very definitely not a guide, though. There is no rich back-story or insider gossip to set the scene and titillate the senses. Still he does try to show us a good time with some fancy off-road maneuvers, including driving up and down steep sand dunes and banking high on the slopes of the sandstone hills. And much like the southwest circuit of Bolivia there are numerous 4WD vehicles around us. This is something of a surprise since we saw very few tourists in town yesterday or on the train.
Finally we come upon the largely deserted film set of Mos Espa in Ong Jemel which features prominently in the first prequel, The Phantom Menace (apparently the Mos Eisley set from the original Star Wars movie has long since disappeared – mostly from souvenir hunters and the elements). The other tours stop for 5 minutes and are gone, leaving Christi and I to relive the magic of the Star Wars movies in peace. The village is based on classic Berber dwellings: dome-shaped mud structure, although there are some alien-like antennas, doors, and gizmos still in place. Low white dunes surround the set. It is easy to let my imagination run wild as we play with our pretend lightsabers (OK, I play and Christi rolls her eyes in disbelief). I tell Christi I can feel the Force within me and all around to which she quips, ‘Does the Force tell you that the tour guide wants to leave?’ I slink back to the vehicle, but inside my childlike sense of wonder has been wonderfully rekindled.
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart – a gut-wrenching tale of love and test tubes.
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