Our visit to Star Wars filming locations in Djerba, Tunisia

Hi guys,

Well I’ve finally gotten around to posting about my recent trip to the remarkable Tunisian island of Djerba. What an amazing trip it was! I’ve mentioned before that my wife is Tunisian so we often travel there to see her family, soak up some rays (sadly missing in The Netherlands), swim in the warm waters of the Mediterranean (the second true love of my life) and to gorge ourselves on Tunisian cuisine. Some may remember that we’ve previously travelled to Star Wars locations in the deep south of Tunisia:

http://vintagestarwarscollectors.com/the-lars-homestead-in-tunisia/

Djerba is crammed with absolutely stunning beaches, plays hosts to some fabulous architecture and houses the famous El Ghriba synagogue, the largest of its kind in Africa. But most importantly, several famous Star Wars scenes were filmed on the island. Lucky for me, my in-laws were kind enough to drive me around to each location, as they did in the south of Tunisia; but this time the drives were a little bit shorter. Well they were meant to be, if it wasn’t for the fact that we kept getting lost and had to ask for directions every two minutes! Finding streets in Djerba can be quite difficult as there aren’t always street names like we are used to. Sometimes even when there are street names, the locals don’t even use them.

In the end I didn’t get to see all of the locations, such as the Stormtrooper check point scene at Anchorhead, but I did see the ones I was most excited about.

So let’s get into it!

First off was the Mos Eisley cantina! This is how it looked in Star Wars.

mos_eisley_cantina01

In reality, the cantina is a small building that used to serve as a bakery but is now abandoned. It’s smack bang in the middle of a small town and unfortunately has become quite dilapidated. I was still pumped to see it though and just had to take a photo of Ben at the scene of the crime (yep Han shot first).

IMAG1468 IMAG1472

Next stop was another great location. Whose house? Say, say, say what? Ben’s house!!!!That’s right, I finally saw the legendary building that Lucas used for his exterior shot of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s house. Check out how Ben’s hermitage looked in Star Wars.

benshouse1977

We drove there from the Ajim ferry port and I was absolutely over the moon when I saw the building appear on the horizon. While in the film it looked like a dusty and isolated outpost in the desert, it is actually a beautiful little structure, brilliant against the contrasting blues of the Mediterranean sea and the Tunisian sky.

IMAG1485

IMAG1492

Of course I chose to mentally block out the bricks that were stacked up outside the house, nothing was going to ruin my Star Wars experience! The structure is now used by fisherman but at least the building still seems to be in decent shape. I checked out the inside of it (did not appear in Star Wars) but not much seemed to be going on.

IMAG1497

I previously posted this on our Facebook page but I have to post it again. A selfie of myself and my mate Ben, who was thrilled to finally be back home after all of these years.

IMAG1503

Well the final location was the scene of Lucas’ exterior shot of Toshi Station in Anchorhead, which in reality is the temple Sidi Jemour. This is the movie shot.

Star_Wars_Mos

The main building that is now a mosque that sits up on a hill overlooking a little inlet used by Octopus fishermen. This is how it looks today.

IMAG1507 IMAG1514

 Some of this structure was also used in some deleted scenes.

Toche-Station

The sunset here was absolutely stunning so I have to share some of these snaps. My wife and her parents are my guest models… I was taking pics with my smart phone and I’m also the world’s worst photographer so these photos do not do the location justice.

IMAG1519

IMAG1538 IMAG1535 IMAG1534 IMAG1530

Anyone who is a Star Wars fan, and has the financial means, should get themselves to Djerba to check so many of these marvelous filming locations. Not only is it a great Star Wars experience but it’s a great holiday destination. Here are a couple of final photos that emphasis the beauty of the beach holiday aspect of island.

Enjoy!

IMAG1562 IMAG1273

Well travelled Jedi Luke and my nasty surprise!

I recently posted some photos on our Facebook page of my trip to Tunisia with my wife. I’m always excited to visit Tunisia because it’s a great place, is always sunny, great food and I love seeing my wife’s family there. This time I was a little bit more excited than usual though as not only we were visiting some Star Wars filming locations on the beautiful island of Djerba (look out for our article about this trip in the very near future!) but I was also going to finally pick up a Luke Jedi MOC that I purchased from my good mate Ross B in Ohio, U.S last June.

This Luke was also special because it was a particularly well-travelled little fella. Instead of having Ross send it straight to me here in The Netherlands, I thought I’d skip the custom taxes and have it shipped to my wife’s sister who lives in Washington D.C. She would then bring it over and hand over the package to my wife in Paris on July. However, things started poorly straight off the bat as my wife had given me the wrong address for her sister’s residence in D.C. So Ross had to send it again after the post had returned it to him. Bad omen? Nah, what else could go wrong…

Well guess what? My wife did go to Paris to meet her but unfortunately her sister missed her flight! Long story that I won’t get into right now. So my wife missed seeing her and also missed out on picking up the plastic contraband. She did bring me a nice sweater from Paris though!

My sister-in-law, her boyfriend and Luke did manage getting to Paris the next day but my wife had left by then. She then took him to Tunisia, where she left him there for me to pick up in September.

So Luke Jedi had travelled from the U.S to Paris (via Canada and Finland), then onto Tunisia and then I would eventually take him back to The Netherlands. That’s gonna be one jet-lagged Luke!

Rewind a little bit to the moment when I had just arrived in Tunisia a couple of weeks ago, where I stormed into my in-laws house and marched upstairs to our bedroom. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on that Luke, another worthwhile addition to my Luke Skywalker focus. I knew the bubble was going to be a bit yellow (it was a Kenner ROTJ after all) but I knew the card was in decent shape. Well I was horrified when I found him! Before leaving Washington,  my wife’s sister had asked her if she could “rip the plastic off’  so that it could more easily fit into her overstuffed suitcase. Of course my wife said no and at this point my wife was thinking that her sister was talking about the box and wrapping the MOC had come in, rather than the bubble of the MOC itself. Anyway lucky for me I have a SW vintage savvy wife. Well that was that. Or so I thought! I wasn’t exactly prepared for what happened next! Look for yourselves! Something’s not right huh?

luke jediluke jedi2

My sister-in-law had folded the card neatly into quarters so she could squeeze it into her bag! She thought I only collected the loose figures and believed the cards were worthless. Of course I was mortified at first but at least it was not an expensive MOC and it gave me inspiration for a blog post! My sister-in-law felt pretty bad about it so I let it slide. None of us want to see an MOC ruined but I guess it could be worse…..Now just to confirm, not only is she my sister-in-law but we are also close friends so I hope the Star Wars vintage mafia doesn’t put out a contract on her. I mean it’s not like she’s a u grader…

I threw the damaged MOC into one of Christian’s and Iain’s acrylic cases (photo below) but even these fantastic cases couldn’t scrub the MOC back to standard. Oh well live and learn I guess….

luke case

The Lars Homestead in Tunisia

Hi guys,

Have you any of you had the chance to visit the Lars Homestead in southern Tunisia? Do you remember it from Star Wars? Well here’s a little something that might jog your memory… For me it is film’s most iconic scene and the reason I focus on vintage Luke Skywalker figures.

If you have visited the homestead, you owe a gigantic thanks to the crew of the ‘Save Lars’ initiative, an eclectic crew of hardcore Star fans that came together just over two years ago, under the leadership of Belgian Mark Dermul, to restore the dilapidated film location. The homestead was located in Nefta, in the Tunisian desert, and had suffered at the hands of a unforgiving North African sun.

old

Other key members of this crack team included Brits Mark Cox and Terry Cooper, Dutchman Imanuel Djik, American Robert Cunningham and Belgian Michel Verpoorten. While there were hundreds of people from across the globe who lent their support to the project, I was thrilled to hear that several prominent vintage collectors were among these individuals.

The project was funded by public donations and in May 2011 the team received the funds, just under 12,000 U.S dollars, required to begin their restoration work. In December 2011 they finally received authorisation from a newly elected Tunisian government and after sorting logistical issues the team flew into Tunisia on 26 May 2012 to begin their work.

I was lucky enough to speak with team member Mark Cox who gave me a brief outline of some of their work. It took the team five days to restore the homestead and they sweated in the sweltering heat from 6am until 12pm, escaping the sun once the incredible mid-day heat kicked in.

As you can see from this team photo, the homestead looked almost brand new post restoration. When I saw the site first hand I was amazed at how the stunning white paint presented a striking contrast to the permanent blue expanses of the Saharan sky. Absolutely cracking job lads!

team

Mark also told me that they have further plans to continue the up keep of the homestead for many years to come but unfortunately they don’t have the free time to work on any other filming locations. He wishes that could save all of the locations but alas they are only a small team. Mark and the team are very proud of their work and hope the homestead will stand for many more years to come.

Here are a couple of photos of Mark relaxing and taking it easy while the rest of the team were slaving under the sun!

mark1mark

While the efforts of this crew did receive publicity (is there ever enough coverage for a great deed like this?) what may not have been as widely appreciated is that Mark and Imanuel are both avid collectors of both carded/boxed and loose SW vintage! You’ve just got to love that. 

If you’d like to learn more about the crew’s gallivanting in Tunisia, check out their site:

http://www.savelars.com/

I am incredibly grateful myself to the crew, considering that I travelled down to the homestead last year with my Tunisian wife and her parents. It’s a long drive down from the capital Tunis in the searing summer heat but it was well worth the trouble. Seeing the homestead was one of the highlights of my 40 years. I almost wet myself (well not almost, I actually did) when I saw it on the horizon – much to the bemusement of my in-laws, who had never watched Star Wars. In many ways, I felt that I had arrived home, albeit my home from 35 years earlier. What a feeling. If you haven’t been there, you really need to go.

20130330_171743  20130330_171653  20130330_171045 20130330_170943 20130330_17081220130330_171700

Not only is the homestead amazing, but the surrounding area is spectacular. We visited an oasis in the middle of the bone dry Sahara desert and also saw some of the locations from the prequels. Okay not vintage but still cool.

20130330_10395220130330_11094820130330_114509

20130330_12011620130330_15325620130330_155000

This September we are off to the Tunisian island of Djerba to chill out on the beaches and of course visit Kenobi’s house!

Thanks to Mark Cox for providing me with both photos and information about this great initiative.

Thanks for having me.