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.
