Sidi Jemour Mosque
OVERVIEW
Site: Sidi Jemour Mosque complex
GPS: 33.831420, 10.748173
Location: Groa outskirts, Médenine Governorate, Djerba island, Tunisia
Description:
Ibadi coastal defense complex (16th century CE)
Decommissioned from at least 1975 up to 2014
Star Wars film:
Episode IV — A New Hope (1977)
Set construction start: 3 April 1976
Production: 4 April 1976
Star Wars locations | Film sets:
Anchorhead | main road
Anchorhead | Tosche Station (exterior)
Great Mesra Plateau | Mos Eisley perimeter
Leads on set:
Mark Hamill / Luke Skywalker
Garrick Hagon / Biggs Darklighter
Kathleen “Koo” Stark / Camie (Legends: Camie Marstrap Loneozner)
Anthony Forrest / The Fixer (Legends: Laze “Fixer” Loneozner)
Jack Purvis / robot
Kenny Baker / Artoo Detoo (R2-D2) — Note: Listed on the call sheet, but not featured in any footage
Scenes:
8 [Luke in landspeeder almost runs down a woman] <deleted> — Filmed: 4 April 1976
10 [Biggs and Luke look up into space] <deleted> — Filmed: 4 April 1976
16 [Biggs reveals to Luke that he’s going to join the rebellion] <deleted> — Filmed: 4 April 1976
Final cut: 0
Deleted: 3
Sequence:
Transition to Mos Eisley {plate} — Filmed: 4 April 1976
Final cut: 1
Deleted: 0
Record: Crews produced a total of 4 minutes and 11 seconds of screen time on the single day of filming at this site, more than any other Episode IV shoot day.
Omitted: None of the Tosche Station footage filmed at Sidi Jemour Mosque made the final cut.
Framed setting: Low camera angles predominantly facing north/east were used to create the inland Tosche Station visual, effectively hiding views of the Mediterranean (Gulf of Gabès) coastline surrounding the mosque.
Perimeter: Despite the introduction of CGI architecture in the Episode IV Special Edition (1997) that significantly altered the original footage used for the Mos Eisley perimeter transition sequence, this content remains the only imagery filmed at the mosque visible in the film.
Wrap: Final film site/production date for 1st unit Episode IV principal photography in Tunisia.
Maguer Gorge
OVERVIEW
Site: Maguer Gorge
GPS: 34.036182, 8.280345
Location: Jebel Sidi Bouhlel, Dghoumès National Park, Tozeur Governorate, southwest Tunisia
Description: Geological formation (Campanian Age)
Star Wars films:
Episode IV — A New Hope (1977)
Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999)
Set construction start: 26 March 1976 / n/a
Production: 26, 28-31 March, ~5 April 1976 / ~25 July 1997
Star Wars locations | Film sets:
Jundland Wastes | rock mesa canyon
Mos Espa podrace circuit | Canyon Dune Turn
Sluuce Canyon | desert wasteland bluff
Leads on set: Episode IV
Alec Guinness / Obi-Wan Kenobi
Mark Hamill / Luke Skywalker
Anthony Daniels / See Threepio (C-3PO)
Kenny Baker / Artoo Detoo (R2-D2)
Jack Purvis / head Jawa (Legends: Dathcha)
Peter Diamond (stunt supervisor) / Tusken Raider
Scenes: Episode IV
17 [Jawas neutralize R2-D2] — Filmed: 30 March 1976
18 [Jawas carry R2-D2 to sandcrawler] — Filmed: 30 March 1976
35 [Tusken Raiders spot Luke in landspeeder] — Filmed: 29 March 1976
37 [Luke and C-3PO find R2-D2] — Filmed: 26 March 1976
38 [Luke attacked by Tusken Raiders] — Filmed: 26, 29 March 1976
39 [Arrival of Ben Kenobi in canyon] — Filmed: 28-29 March 1976
40 [Luke finds injured C-3PO] — Filmed: 28 March 1976
B42 [Luke and Ben discover killed Jawas] — Filmed: 31 March 1976
E42 [Jawa bonfire] — Filmed: 31 March 1976
47 [View of Mos Eisley, “wretched hive of scum and villainy”] — Filmed: 29 March 1976
Final cut: 10
Deleted: 0
Back-projection: Episode IV
Scene 34 [Luke spots fugitive R2-D2] <90% deleted> — Filmed: ~5 April 1976
Final cut: 0
Deleted: 1
Sequences: Episode I
Tusken Raider sniper point #1 (podrace / lap 1) — Filmed: ~25 July 1997
Tusken Raider sniper point #2 (podrace / lap 1 and lap 2) <lap 2 deleted> — Filmed: ~25 July 1997
Tusken Raider sniper point #3 (podrace / lap 1) — Filmed: ~25 July 1997
Tusken Raider sniper point #6 (podrace / lap 2 ) — Filmed: ~25 July 1997
Tusken Raider sniper point #7 and #8 (podrace / lap 2) <deleted> — Filmed: ~25 July 1997
Tusken Raider sniper point #9 and #10 (podrace / lap 2) <deleted> — Filmed: ~25 July 1997
Final cut: 4
Deleted: 3
Indiana Jones film:
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Production: 10 September 1980
Indiana Jones location | Film set:
Greek island | Geheimhaven canyon
Leads on set: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Harrison Ford / Indiana Jones
Karen Allen / Marion Ravenwood
Paul Freeman / René Emile Belloq
Wolf Kahler / Colonel Herman Dietrich
Ronald Lacey / SS-Major Arnold Ernst Toht
Scene: Raiders of the Lost Ark
144 [Indy tracks Nazi procession, threatens ark with bazooka] — Filmed: 10 September 1980
Final cut: 1
Deleted: 0
Nickname: Popularly known as “Star Wars Canyon” due to its prolific use by Lucasfilm crews.
Aerial footage: Only Star Wars film site in Tunisia filmed from an aircraft as part of production.
Canon language: Arabic text graffiti appears in Episode IV on the canyon wall behind the parked landspeeder, inadvertently distinguishing Arabic as the first written text presented on fictional Tatooine.
Wrap: Final film site for Episode IV principal photography in Tunisia (2nd unit).
Mos Eisley overlook: In place of the raw footage filmed from the summit overlooking the canyon, a matte painting by Harrison Ellenshaw (February/March 1977) depicting the vantage point from Dante’s View (Death Valley, California, USA) was used to frame the iconic Mos Eisley overlook visual featured in the final cut.
Historic: First Star Wars prequels filming location in Tunisia.
Record: Only film site in Tunisia repurposed for three geographically distinct Star Wars locations on fictional Tatooine.
Television: Only film site in Tunisia to appear in a Star Wars franchise live-action series (The Mandalorian), featured as purchased third-party footage.
Shared space: Indiana Jones filming areas overlap with the Star Wars footprint in the canyon, geographically pairing (1) the ark procession with C-3PO’s post-Tusken attack recovery location, R2-D2’s alcove hideout, Luke’s landspeeder, Obi-Wan’s “Hello There!” introduction to Luke, and Tusken Raider podrace sniper point #1 as well as (2) Indy’s bazooka position with the Tusken Raider ambush boulders and Obi-Wan’s appearance point.
Cinematic overlap: Beyond the three Lucasfilm movies, canyon interior featured in three additional full-length films: The Little Prince (1974), The English Patient (1996), and Bent Keltoum (2001).
Ksar Ommarsia
OVERVIEW
Site: Ksar Ommarsia
GPS: 33.347444, 10.492121
Location: Médenine city center, Médenine Governorate, southeast Tunisia
Description: Amazigh fortified granary (early 19th century CE)
Star Wars film:
Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999)
Set construction start: Early July 1997
Production: 9 August 1997
Star Wars location | Film sets:
Mos Espa | Anakin Skywalker’s hovel (exterior)
Mos Espa | slave quarters street
Leads on set:
Liam Neeson / Qui-Gon Jinn
Jake Lloyd / Anakin Skywalker
Natalie Portman / Padmé Amidala Naberrie
Pernilla August / Shmi Skywalker
Dhruv Chanchani / Kitster (Legends: Kitster Chanchani Banai)
Warwick Davis / Wald
Scenes:
70 [They seek shelter from the sandstorm] — Filmed: 9 August 1997
104 [Anakin fights with Greedo] <deleted> — Filmed: 9 August 1997
107 [Anakin leaves Shmi and does not look back] — Filmed: 9 August 1997
Final cut: 2
Deleted: 1
Composited background ksar footage: 4 scenes
82 [The pod rises, the engines ignite] — Scene film site: Eriguet dunes | yardang field | Mos Espa slave quarters backyards set
88 [Probe droid searches] — Scene film site: Eriguet dunes | Mos Espa marketplace set
104 [Anakin fights with Greedo] <deleted> — Scene film site: Ksar Ommarsia
107 [Anakin leaves Shmi and does not look back] — Scene film site: Ksar Ommarsia
Ksour hub: Once home to the largest concentration of ksar architecture in Tunisia with approximately 25 ksour, Ksar Ommarsia and two adjacent ksour (Ksar Ouled Brahim and Ksar Lobbeira) are the only three remaining fortified granaries in the Médenine city center.
Pedestrian zone: The narrow ksar courtyard, a main walkway through the city center, is populated with roughly 120 ghorfas stacked up to three stories high and over 40 curvilinear concrete stairs leading to the upper-level storage chambers.
Historic: First-ever Star Wars franchise filming at a Tunisian ksar.
Decor: Crew covered the ksar courtyard stone floor with sand to depict the desert Tatooine climate, complementing the stand-alone moisture vaporator and extensive ghorfa set dressings removed after filming.
Background architecture: Post-production efforts utilized segmented plate content of three Ksar Ommarsia walls to create Mos Espa cityscape architecture in four of the five Episode I scenes containing composited background ksar footage.
Ksar Hadada
OVERVIEW
Site: Ksar Hadada (northwest corner area)
GPS: 33.100502, 10.313744
Location: Ksar Hadada village center, Tataouine Governorate, southeast Tunisia
Description: Amazigh fortified granary village (mid-19th century CE)
Repurposed: Hotel Ksar Hadada
Star Wars film:
Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999)
Set construction start: Early July 1997
Production: 10 August 1997
Star Wars location | Film sets:
Mos Espa | slave quarters backyards
Mos Espa | slave quarters street
Leads on set:
Liam Neeson / Qui-Gon Jinn
Natalie Portman / Padmé Amidala Naberrie
Pernilla August / Shmi Skywalker
Scenes:
80 [“There’s something about this boy”] — Filmed: 10 August 1997
81 [Qui-Gon and Shmi on porch discuss Anakin] — Filmed: 10 August 1997
A82 [Shmi standing alone on porch] — Filmed: 10 August 1997
85 [Padmé exits hovel at sunrise] <deleted> — Filmed: 10 August 1997
Final cut: 3
Deleted: 1
Composited background ksar footage: 1 scene
85 [Padmé exits hovel at sunrise] <deleted> — Scene film site: Ksar Hadada
Recce: Only prequels film site in Tunisia to be initially scouted but not utilized for Episode IV. The mid-November 1975 recce explored the then-newly restored northwest corner of the site, presumably as a potential location for unrealized Mos Eisley slums street sequences.
Tataouine: Only Star Wars film site located in the Tunisian region of Tataouine, the orthographic inspiration for renaming the desert planet of Utapau to Tatooine in the Episode IV fourth draft (1 January 1976).
Template: Film site main courtyard—not used for filming—paired with other northwest corner elements was replicated to construct the Mos Espa slave quarters backyards set (Mos Espa small set) in the Eriguet dunes north of Nefta (Tozeur Governorate).
Café: Northeast corner of Café Salon de Thé (closed local business) visible in film footage.
Background architecture: Post-production efforts utilized segmented plate content of the Ksar Hadada northwest corner porch to create Mos Espa cityscape architecture in one of the five Episode I scenes containing composited background ksar footage.
Wrap: Final film site/production date for 1st unit Episode I principal photography in Tunisia.
Restoration project: Galaxy Tours designed/funded a restoration project in 2020 to revive key Episode I Mos Espa architectural elements in the film site northwest corner, focused primarily on the filming area porch, staircase, main courtyard (set template), and color-match repainting.
Hotel Sidi Idriss
OVERVIEW
Site: Hotel Sidi Idriss (pit 2)
GPS: 33.542564, 9.967038
Location: Matmata al-Qadimal, Gabès Governorate, southeast Tunisia
Description: Subterranean dwelling (ca. late 17th century CE)
Star Wars films:
Episode IV — A New Hope (1977)
Episode II — Attack of the Clones (2002)
Set construction start: Mid-February 1976 / early August 2000
Production: 1 April 1976 / 11 September 2000
Star Wars location | Film set:
Great Chott Salt Flats | Lars Homestead (interior)
Leads on set: Episode IV
Mark Hamill / Luke Skywalker
Phil Brown / Owen Lars
Shelagh Fraser / Beru Lars
Jack Purvis / robot
Leads on set: Episode II
Hayden Christensen / Anakin Skywalker
Natalie Portman / Padmé Amidala Naberrie
Anthony Daniels / See Threepio (C-3PO)
Jack Thompson / Cliegg Lars
Joel Edgerton / Owen Lars
Bonnie Maree Piesse / Beru Whitesun
Scenes: Episode IV
26 [Purchase of C-3PO and R2-D2] — Filmed: 1 April 1976
A28 [Lars Homestead—dining room] — Filmed: 1 April 1976
A28A [Lars Homestead—dining room] <deleted> — Filmed: 1 April 1976
32 [Owen looking for Luke at homestead] — Filmed: 1 April 1976
Final cut: 3
Deleted: 1
Scenes: Episode II
90 [Anakin meets the Lars family] — Filmed: 11 September 2000
92 [They discuss Shmi’s fate] — Filmed: 11 September 2000
101 [Padmé pacing in the courtyard] <deleted> — Filmed: 11 September 2000
Final cut: 2
Deleted: 1
Five pits: Hotel Sidi Idriss (founded in 1968) consists of five individual pit dwellings linked via four lateral tunnels constructed in the late 1960s as part of the hotel renovation project. The surface-level passageway leading to the middle pit dwelling (pit 3) functions as the hotel main entrance.
Blueprint: Spatial proximity of pits 1-3 at Hotel Sidi Idriss loosely mirrors the three-pit layout of the Lars Homestead exterior set constructed on the Chott el-Djerid salt flats, located 265 km to the west.
Mural: Ceiling artwork in the film site cave used for the Lars Homestead dining room set (pit 2/cave 9) was created in approximately 1968, commemorating the year the multi-pit Hotel Sidi Idriss opened for business.
Beru’s kitchen: The lateral tunnel connecting pit 1 to pit 2 (constructed in 1967/1968) paired with the adjoining steps leading into pit 2/cave 9 were collectively used as the template for the Episode IV Lars Homestead kitchen set (EMI-Elstree Studios). No kitchen interior scenes for either film were shot in Matmata.
Tandem: George Lucas and Anthony Daniels were the only cast/crew members to be in Matmata for the two production days across both films. Daniels was a bystander above pit 2 at the site during Episode IV production.
The End: Final Star Wars franchise filming location/activity in Tunisia (Episode II).
Kairouan
OVERVIEW
Site: Kairouan
GPS: 35.676441, 10.099909
Location: Kairouan medina (old city), Kairouan Governorate, central Tunisia
Description: Enduring ancient Arab-Muslim cultural/intellectual center (670 CE)
Filming areas:
plazas (x2)
private properties (x3)
streets/alleys (x13)
Indiana Jones film:
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Set construction start: Early September 1980
Production: 17-20 September 1980
Indiana Jones location | Film sets:
Egypt | Cairo souk | bazaar streets & plazas
Egypt | Cairo souk | hitmen flat (balcony/room)
Egypt | Cairo souk | Marhala Bar (exterior/interior)
Egypt | Cairo souk | Omar’s Square
Egypt | Cairo souk | residential alleys
Egypt | Cairo souk | Sallah’s terrace (rooftop)
Leads on set:
Harrison Ford / Indiana Jones
Karen Allen / Marion Ravenwood
Paul Freeman / René Belloq
John Rhys-Davies / Sallah Mohammed el-Kahir
Souad Messaoudi / Fayah
Vic Tablian / Monkey Man
Steve Hanson / German Agent
Terry Richards / Cairo Swordsman
Scenes:
59 [Lunch on Sallah’s rooftop terrace; views over Cairo; monkey appears]
61 [Sallah & Indy discuss German dig, map room, medallion, and Ark on terrace]
63 [Indy & Marion enter bazaar with monkey]
64 [Monkey runs to Monkey Man in alley]
64B [Monkey Man spies on Indy & Marion in bazaar]
64C [German agents spot Indy & Marion from balcony, order Arab hitmen to action]
65 [Arabs ambush Indy & Marion; cart rides off with Marion; Indy unleashes whip]
66 [Marion on the run, hits Arab with frying pan, hides in basket]
68 [Chattering monkey reveals Marion’s hiding place]
69 [Indy cuts down last bad Arab, starts to follow Marion]
70 [Arabs carry Marion away in basket; Marion shouts for Indy]
72 [Foot chase down streets and alleys]
74 [Indy pushes through crowded square, dodges gunfire, takes cover; basket heaved into back of truck]
75 [Back of truck filled with munitions]
76 [Truck on the move; Indy shoots driver; truck rolls over and explodes]
77 [Indy drowns his sorrows at Arab bar; German agents escort Indy to Belloq’s table; Sallah’s children save Indy]
78 [Indy, Sallah & children climb into truck in front of Arab bar]
79 [Monkey Man watches, starts motorcycle to follow truck]
79A [Indy & Sallah arrive at Imam’s house; Monkey Man emerges from the shadows] <deleted>
118 [Indy drives truck into Omar’s Garage; Arabs set up bazaar, hide location from German staff car]
Final cut: 19
Deleted: 1
UNESCO: Kairouan medina, founded by the Umayyads in 670 CE as a strategic center point for Islamic conquests in the Maghreb and Andalusia, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988 for its preserved network of ancient walls, gates, minarets, cupolas, winding streets, courtyard houses, and historic mosques. The Mosque of the Three Doors (866 CE)—oldest known mosque in the world with a sculpted facade—appears in the background in four separate scenes.
Name: Kairouan (Arabic: “camp” or “caravan”) sounds similar to Cairo, coincidentally reflecting the Egyptian capital setting adopted for Indiana Jones filming.
Antennas: To mimic 1930s-era cityscape footage from the properties used for Sallah’s terrace and the German/Egyptian hitmen balcony, crew members during a single day organized the removal of over 300 TV antennas from rooftops scattered throughout the medina.
Sallah’s terrace: Crew utilized two separate rooftop areas on a single multi-story residence (located on Rue Salah Soussi) to construct a unified elevated terrace (complete with stairs) for panoramic views over the medina.
Screenplay changes: On the tail end of location shooting, several planned scenes/sequences were shortened (e.g. funeral procession removed from Indy’s street chase), omitted (e.g. German staff car in pursuit of Indy’s truck in Cairo before arriving at Omar’s Square), or deleted (e.g. Imam’s house exterior activity) due to dysentery and heat-fatigue among the cast/crew. These on-the-fly decisions (1) prompted a more compact filming footprint in the medina (with repeat usage of Place J’raba and sections of Avenida Habib Bourguiba) for multiple scenes and (2) produced iconic modified takes such as Indy’s showdown with the Cairo Swordsman.
Arab bar: Crew adopted both the interior and exterior of a popular 1970s-era local coffee shop (Café Hassanet)—now the Hassanet Shoes Gallery with an upper floor carpet shop flanked by two jewelry stores—to shoot footage set at Marhala Bar (name not present in screenplay; derived from set dressing work).
Amghar Mosque
OVERVIEW
Site: Amghar Mosque
GPS: 33.740849, 10.734973
Location: Ajim outskirts, Médenine Governorate, Djerba island, Tunisia
Description:
Ibadi coastal defense mosque (10th century CE)
Decommissioned religious site (since at least 1975)
Star Wars film:
Episode IV — A New Hope (1977)
Set construction: n/a
Production: 4 April 1976
Star Wars location | Film set:
Jundland Wastes | Obi-Wan Kenobi’s house (exterior)
Leads on set: n/a
Sequence:
Transition to Obi-Wan Kenobi’s house {plate} — Filmed: 4 April 1976
Final cut: 1
Deleted: 0
Plate: Only Star Wars film site in Tunisia filmed strictly as a plate (no actors), augmented in post-production with a composited landspeeder.
Framed setting: Cropped footage was filmed at low camera angles from at least two different vantage points to create the inland Jundland Wastes visual, hiding views of the Mediterranean (Gulf of Gabès) coastline surrounding the mosque.
Unscheduled: Last-minute 2nd unit location shoot (absent from call sheet records) filmed on the last day of 1st unit Episode IV principal photography in Tunisia at nearby Sidi Jemour Mosque.
Replaced: Episode IV Special Edition (1997) replaced Amghar Mosque footage with a cliffside CGI-enhanced miniature, relegating on-screen discovery of “Old Ben’s” original Tatooine dwelling to pre-1997 archived copies.
Invader: Paris-based French artist Invader attached the Obi-Wan mosaic to the mosque south wall in November 2019 as part of a 15-day project to install 58 pre-made “space invader” mosaics around Djerba island.
Ajim
OVERVIEW
Site: Ajim neighborhood (Al-Hunit Mosque district)
GPS: 33.723964, 10.750016
Location: Ajim city center, Médenine Governorate, Djerba island, Tunisia
Accessibility: Direct | flat terrain; paved roads; parking at site
Description:
Bakery (abandoned)
Plaza
Two side streets (Rue Habib Thameur & unnamed)
Star Wars film:
Episode IV — A New Hope (1977)
Set construction start: Mid-February 1976
Production: 2-3 April 1976
Star Wars location | Film sets:
Mos Eisley | Cantina (exterior)
Mos Eisley | Docking Bay 94 alley
Mos Eisley | plaza
Mos Eisley | stormtrooper checkpoint
Leads on set:
Alec Guinness / Obi-Wan Kenobi
Mark Hamill / Luke Skywalker
Anthony Daniels / See Threepio (C-3PO)
Kenny Baker / Artoo Detoo (R2-D2)
Anthony Forrest / stormtrooper patrol lead
Jack Purvis / robot
Peter Diamond (stunt supervisor) / cantina patron
Scenes:
48 [Ben: “These are not the droids you’re looking for”] — Filmed: 2 April 1976
49 [In Luke’s landspeeder, they approach cantina] — Filmed: 3 April 1976
ZA50 [Droids in front of cantina] — Filmed: 3 April 1976
A50 [Ben tells Luke he’ll have to sell his landspeeder] — Filmed: 3 April 1976
59 [Mos Eisley: stormtroopers watch Millennium Falcon blast off] — Filmed: 2 April 1976
Final cut: 5
Deleted: 0
Recce: The Star Wars recce in mid-November 1975 scouted an expanded footprint in the Ajim center for potential Mos Eisley footage, to include an unnamed street located one block northwest of the film site area.
Party: Cast/crew celebrated Alec Guinness’ 62nd birthday on set in Ajim (2 April 1976).
Architecture: Djerban architecture (Amazigh/Ibadi Islamic blended style)—the combination of (1) simplistic domes, (2) barrel-vaulted roofs, and (3) weight-bearing external buttresses that directly shaped “Tatooine” design—is readily visible in Ajim, both inside the small city and on menzel complexes in rural outskirts.
Mos Eisley: Crews added set dressings to (1) a now-abandoned traditional bakery (cantina exterior) with a domed side section (built to draw away heat to maintain lower room temperatures in the bakery) on Avenue Abou el Kacem Chabbi, (2) an adjoining rectangular plaza (landspeeder and pedestrian traffic) once lined to the north and south with domed grain storage ghorfas, (3) and two intersecting side streets (stormtrooper patrol activity focused on Rue Habib Thameur) just north of the plaza to create the Mos Eisley film site area in Ajim.
Spaceship: The “roller” machine used to make sandcrawler tracks at the Lars Homestead set on the Chott el-Djerid salt flats was repurposed as the elongated tail of the unnamed crashed spaceship (not the Dowager Queen) constructed to cover a large tree (since removed) near the cantina set and city buildings in the background, particularly the Ajim Primary School complex.
Jerba prop: Two shaggy-haired, fiberglass/latex skin beast-of-burden “jerbas” (named after Djerba island; call sheet: “cow with pack and saddle”) were positioned close to the cantina set faux entrance.
Stormtroopers: Anthony Forrest, sunburned from Djerban beachfront lounging while waiting to film Tosche Station scenes at Sidi Jemour Mosque after the Ajim location shoot, was cast last-minute as the the ranking stormtrooper (joining six local Tunisian stormtroopers on set) to fill the need for an English-speaking patrol lead at the security checkpoint to fluidly interact with the Jedi mind trick dialogue.
Torn pants: For the last C-3PO activity filmed in Tunisia, Anthony Daniels’ shuffle in scene 49 from the parked landspeeder toward the cantina set faux entrance was hampered by a visible split down the seat of his pants.
Controversy: Removing the “orange blob” visible under Luke’s motorized landspeeder while driving across the plaza (created by smearing vaseline on the camera lens in Ajim to disguise the landspeeder wheels) and expanding the overall vision of Mos Eisley (hindered by location shoot realities in Ajim) were key factors that prompted The Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition revisions decades later, sparking the enduring “original version” debate coupled with the #ReleaseTheOriginalTrilogy campaign.
Cantina: Identified in screenplay versions either as the “spaceport cantina” or “Mos Eisley cantina,” the term “Chalmun’s Cantina” (not a screenplay reference) was first introduced in the roleplaying sourcebook Galaxy Guide 7: Mos Eisley (1993).
Modernization: Community-wide construction/improvement projects in addition to ownership neglect have altered, replaced, or left derelict almost all film site reference points in the Ajim neighborhood.
Invader: Paris-based French artist Invader in November 2019 attached the stormtrooper mosaic to the abandoned bakery exterior (on the northern face under the dome where crews constructed the cantina set faux entrance) as part of a 15-day project to install 58 pre-made “space invader” mosaics around Djerba island.