We had been to Ouazarzate a couple of years ago and visited a studio (see 11.7.11) but this year we had Sweetheart with us and were on our way to the film festival so to continue the film theme we visited the other studio. This one was the one nearer in towards town with the Hotel Oscar attatched.
It's a bit of a scam to have the 2 studios with separate visits and tickets as it it clear that any film made uses both of them and the sets and props of each film are divided between the two. This one had slightly more sets in the studio area but the Kingdom of God sets out in the desert are included in the other Studio's ticket.
We were shown round by a young woman with a degree in Film Production Management who could not get a job other than a studio guide. She had excellent English, Arabic and French of course, Spanish and Italian. She was surprised to hear that we did not get Arabic, French, Italian or Spanish films in cinemas in Wales and was also surprised when I told her that the only Welsh language films are really produced for television. She showed us the sets for a french Asterix film based on Karnak temple which was interesting as we'd visited the original. The set occupies about 20 mins in the film but took 8 months to build. Another small pyramid took 2 months to build and appeared for about 5 seconds! That's show business. Unfortunately camera difficulties prevented pictures but we took quite a few of the Kundron sets.
They filmed a documentary there the week before but had no features scheduled in the near future. We somewhat disappointed her by our lack of knowledge of french films shot there and I was very impressed by how well some of the Ben Hur props had lasted until I found out that there had been a remake in 2009 without Charlton Heston.
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| Interior set for Kundron |
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| Interior and props for Kundron |
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| Plaster and plastic Stupa |
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| Exterior set for Kundron |
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| Film set with Atlas mountains in the background |
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