by Lynnette Lounsbury
Well now, if there is a bright spot in the Universe, this place may be the farthest from it, but if ever there was a chance to kill three birds with one lightsabre – it’s a visit to Tunisia.
Not only was this dry, hot and scarily bleak location used in five of the six Star Wars films, it featured in Raiders of the Lost Ark and possibly most notoriously was the home of the Brian, the hapless Messiah of Monty Python’s Life of Brian. It’s quite frankly a geek film fan’s heaven.
“Cheer up, Brian. You know what they say: some things in life are bad. They can really make you mad. Other things just make you swear and curse. When you’re chewing on life’s gristle, don’t grumble; give a whistle, and this’ll help things turn out for the best.”
Photo by Sergey Yeliseev
Back in 1979, the Monty Python crew shot many of the scenes of Brian’s life in an area called the Ribat and in an ancient fortified monastery at Monastir. The irony of course was that Franco Zeffirelli had also used this same set for his slightly more devout version of the life of Christ, “Jesus of Nazareth.” The Ribat is open to public and is a fantastic warren of walls and passages. A little further north in Tunisia is the ancient city of Carthage which housed the set of the famous and endlessly quoted scene “The Children’s Matinee” in which the People’s Front of Judea debate both their name and their raison d’etre. And a final trip south will end your Python pilgrimage in Matmata where Brian was crucified. It’s hot, everyone speaks Berber and most of the town is underground – but always look on the bright side… you are already in Luke Skywalker’s home world of Tatooine.
“The Jundland Wastes are not to be travelled lightly.”
Apparently Tatooine was once a lush and thriving forest planet. That is, until the Rakatan Infinite Empire subjected the planet to orbital bombardment and turned it into a desert wasteland where people eeked out a living pulling moisture from the atmosphere and aging premature. (You can read more of this quite scarily detailed backstory at Wookieepedia. Yes you can.) Now, and by now I mean, “a long time ago”, it is just a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Sounds like fun.
Photo by Gabriele Fontana
As a Star Wars tourist you can visit the real town of Tatouine (the name was George’s inspiration) and in the several very well preserved ancient villages that were used as the sets for both Luke’s and Anakin’s home. Some of the more fortified villages are called Ksars and these were used as the slave quarters in The Phantom Menace. And while you are already in Matmata, you can stay in one of these troglogyte caves for about $12 (US) a night at the Hotel Sidi Driss. There are Star Wars props on display throughout the hotel and it is only a stone’s throw from the Dune Sea. Note to anyone who may have sat in front of the console too long – you need to be quite mobile to do Tunisia. Getting into your hotel room requires the use of a ladder.
After your dank, dark but reasonably priced sleep, you may wish to journey out to Sidi Bouhlel, just outside of Tozeur and probably better known as Beggar’s Canyon. Anakin defeated Sebulba here and Luke shot Womp Rats. It was quite a busy place actually, because not too long after that Indiana Jones threatened to shoot a grenade at the Ark of the Covenant in this same canyon.
“Indiana Jones. I always knew some day you’d come walking back through my door.”
Photo by damian entwistle
In 1980 Spielberg began what was really quite a hapless shoot in Tunisia for his film Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was supposed to be a six week shoot as legend has it – but the weather was so harsh, the illness amongst the crew so prevalent and savage – that he condensed it into four weeks. The Tanis scenes were filmed in a place called Sedala, not far from Matmata, and due to the heat, and the loss of crew to disease, many of the scenes were improvised on the fly. In interviews Spielberg claims he only avoided illness by eating a steady diet of imported canned food while Harrison Ford did not – and contracted dysentery. So sick was he that during one of the heavily choreographed fight scenes, film in a town called Kairouan, he could barely keep upright and said to Spielberg in desperation, “Let’s just shoot the fucker.” Legend was born.
There is much to see in Tunisia. Particularly if you are fond of the colours brown and red. It is however a harsh place to travel and you will need to be prepared in terms of your wardrobe and health. Take bottled water with you and keep well covered. Visit your doctor before you travel and see which vaccinations they recommend for travel in Northern Africa. Tickets out of Sydney are not cheap and start from about $4000.
Travel insurance is essential because the Romans have no compassion and the Hutts are worse. Lightsabres, whips and juniper berries optional.
Author’s Bio: Lynnette Lounsbury is Senior Editor of YTravel, a lecturer at Avondale College and writes everything from travel articles to novels, poems and some pretty well crafted “to-do” lists.