In 1976 director George Lucas was scouting locations for his next film.
Coming off the success of American Graffiti, he was looking for alien worlds for a little sci-fi film called Star Wars. Since all the post production would be done in England, it needed to be close to Europe. His production designer John Barry suggested he take a look at Tunisia and the rest is history.
Outside Tozeur, a set was built near Ong Jemal that served as Mos Espa, the spaceport on the planet Tatooine. The nearby cliffs were also used as a backdrop for several scenes, including the pod races. The set was abandoned by the crew after filming and nearly disappeared in the desert, but was later restored as a tourist attraction.
Lucas used many local Berber features in his sets, including troglodyte houses as Luke Skywalker’s home and granaries as the slave quarters of Mos Espa. Even Luke’s home planet of Tatooine was inspired by the real life Berber town of Tataouine.
In all, 10 different locations in Tunisia were used in Star Wars and the later sequels. Lucas’ 3-week location shoot in 1976 is credited with launching the Tunisian film industry.
Rick Mellor
I hope you guys are having fun. I expect so. Nice job on the photos and commentary. Just the right length in our attention deficit world to keep your audience engaged. I also like the “traveling in our footsteps name”. Did it originate from you or was it suggested by someone I might know? Keep discovering…..
Rick
Sami
Rick, glad you’re enjoying the posts. We had a lot of great suggestions for a blog title, but “Travel in our Footsteps” was my own.
Michael
Great fun! Awesome Hollywood story
Cinna
This is awesome! The force is strong with this post!!