Lucas accused of exploiting Africa in 'Star Wars' series

One of Africa's leading film directors accused Hollywood yesterday of exploiting the continent as a film set and damaging the home-grown movie industry.

Mahamat Saleh Haroun, whose film Abouna won critical praise in 2002, highlighted George Lucas's Star Wars series in a scathing critique of how the continent has been misrepresented on celluloid.

Lucas has returned repeatedly to the desert in Tunisia and Morocco since 1977 to provide the setting for the mythical planet Tattooine. Haroun, who has previously complained about the financing and distribution problems of the indigenous industry, claimed the films prevented African directors from doing their own work.

"Africa is just a location for Star Wars," Haroun told the BBC World Service's Africa Live programme. "Friends of mine, directors in Morocco and Tunisia, became just assistants to Hollywood. They came there and made their movies, and these guys stopped making movies. "If we see images from the outside, so we also need to see our images. That's the problem. You just try to make a good job and try to distribute it to where people colonise use by images."

He said it was not a question of making the image of Africa more positive but criticised the way that Hollywood portrayed African figures. "Africa has been shot by others, so the image of Africa was wrong. They shoot us like animals," he said, adding that the image of Africa from American productions was of actors "just dancing and laughing with big teeth.

"It's the fault of the directors and their vision about Africa. It's like the Garden of Eden or a location just for animals," he said. "I think that a lot of movies made by Hollywood in Africa, or shooting black actors, was wrong. They had a certain idea about black people – it's a cultural way to think like that."

Alan Morrison, reviews editor of Empire magazine, said yesterday that big-budget Hollywood filming on locations outside the United States had provided a financial fillip to the local industry. "You can't say the entire continent's film industry is suffering because they have got a bit of work thrown their way by George Lucas," he said.

He said film festivals were helping to bring more African work and images to the public, forcing Western directors to adapt. And he pointed out that Hollywood had also distorted the view of America's own past with cowboy films.

Haroun is one of only two film directors from Chad and they both live in France. He fled civil war in Africa for Paris, where he studied film. When he made Abouna ("Our Father" in Arabic)about the search of two boys for their father, he had to send each day's footage away to Paris for processing. All of the funding for the film came from French sources.

He complains that overseas funding means that backers expect a certain kind of film about Africa, and insists that it is Africans' responsibility to tell their own stories. Asked if he felt guilty at leaving Chad, he said last year: "Yes, but what should I do? Shut up? Or try to make films about the country I love? I chose the latter."