Back in Time

A Movie at the End of the World

and 5 surprises

Hollywood Morocco, Here I Come

Part 2

Surprises come from mislaid expectations.

Who, me?

I am often surprised, but that is more because I say yes to most things, and see what happens next.

What were my expectations this time?

What movie was I willing to sit on a bus a second time for a 14-hour trip to the edge of the Moroccan Sahara? (Hollywood Morocco, Here I Come)

Because the movie was Gladiator 2.

Yes. I kid you not. I went to Morocco’s Hollywood to do some movie extra work for Gladiator 2.

The trip down was just as long as the first time – and the views just as amazing, that desert version of the Swiss Alps switchbacks. Then the desert – It never fails to take my breath away. Not your classic red sandhills – they’re near the border in Merzouga.

Most of the Moroccan desert is the flat stony kind, a landscape of hills with a stunning display of colours from the yellows and reds through to the pinks, purples and blues. And then a sudden splash of green along a stream at the foot of some magenta cliff faces.

And the expectations?

As it turns out, we weren’t to stay in the fancy hotel with the lovely swimming pool of the first visit. The 5-star hotel of the first trip was replaced with a 2 ½ star one. Billboard sized photos of Hollywood stars all around the courtyard did little to make it classy. I actually got a room to myself (usually it’s a shared room), so no competition on the dodgy shower that was intermittently cold and didn’t even work at first.

The hotel even had a pool! Perhaps a little green on the bottom and rather plain, but it was wet, and cool. And there was an outdoors bar at the end of it. At the end of a long hot day, a cold beer is still a cold beer!

The First Surprise (besides the hotel)

Can you imagine visiting ancient Rome? Cos I’ve actually been there!

Before dawn we were bused through a sleepy Ouarzazate to Atlas Studios for dressing. Registration, then breakfast, then dress, hair and makeup.

We walked from breakfast in our jeans and 21st century getup to dressing. I found my outfit – not the lovely open and flowing robes of some, but 3 heavy layers of grey, plus a tight-fitting headdress.

By the time I left the dressing room, the world had transformed. I walked past a gladiator dressed for battle, a fat senator in his white robes, and a bunch of Nubians in their colourful outfits. I had time-travelled back 2000 years.

It totally reminded me of one of my old-time favourite movies – the original Jesus Christ Superstar movie (1973). At the start of the movie with the opening credits, the cast arrives on an old bus in their 1970s daily gear – hippie clothes and long hair. Then they re-emerged as their movie parts, transformed by 2,000 years.

It felt like that to me. I had been transported back in time. Morocco and 2023 no longer existed. In spite of mobiles and modern makeup and a comfortable bus, I was transported back to 211AD.

The Second Surprise

The filming was at Ait Ben-Haddou. You would already know it, if you’re a Game of Thrones fan. It is the red city in the background of many scenes and photos, used also in other movies, about half an hour by bus from Ouarzazate studios, and worth a visit if you’re nearby.

It is just one of many villages like it in the area – built up a small hillside in red stones It isn’t even the most spectacular of them, but it is the one which has been made into the tourist destination, and famous in our movies and TV series.

Now, picture this. A mob from ancient Rome stepping off modern Moroccan buses, and walking across the dry river bed to the old city. It is the classic crowd gathering for games and gladiator fights in the Colosseum.

They reconstructed the arena from the original Gladiator movie 20 years earlier. I may not have had a chance to explore Ait Ben-Haddou, but I had two days sitting in that arena staring up at it, between bouts of screaming and cheering while I watched Paul Mescal act out the fight scenes in the arena – over and over again.

And I’m telling you – that man worked hard! I watched men dressed as apes, and act like apes, “tearing apart” the gladiators, while I screamed at them to do worse to “the barbarians” disgraced by defeat in Rome’s latest military triumph. And now I have seen those scenes put together in the movie, released in 2024.

If you get a chance, visit Ait Ben-Haddou, wander through the old town, imagine what it used to be like. Maybe a local will also show you where Russell Crowe sat.

The Third Surprise

It may have been only June, but down south on the borders of the Sahara it was starting to warm up. This is a part of Morocco that typically goes up into the high 50s through the summer.

I am an Aussie. I finished high school in a small town on the edge of the Western Plains of NSW. Through summer many days went up to 40 and more. As a school kid, I thought the best part was that we got an extra week of holiday at the end of the summer for being in the hot zone.

I even worked outdoors through a heatwave, as a meter reader in Canberra (reading electricity, gas and water meters). After a winter trip to San Francisco in January 2019, I was feeling very broke. So when the other 24, smarter meter readers stopped working at 37 degrees, which is the legal level in Australia, I kept saying yes to more work. I walked outside for 11-hour days, 6 days a week, for 3 weeks – in 42 degrees.

And that was hot!

So I understand 42 degrees.

I don’t mind temperatures in the mid-30s when I am wearing singlets and shorts, or better still, in my swimmers at the beach or a pool. But my outfit was hot.

This was only in the mid-30s, quite comfortable for the south.

They were needing the crowd to be spread around the arena, and kept telling me to stay put in my spot. I ended up sitting in the sun for several hours

I ended up sitting in the sun for hours. And remember, my grey outfit was hot. I had 3. Heavy. Layers. Of dress. Plus a tight fitting and heavy headdress, with a ‘veil’ that covered from my shoulders to my waist.

I thought I was ok. Soldier on, I thought.

A girl had got heatstroke and been taken to hospital in very bad shape. Heatstroke might just sound like feeling hot and maybe fainting, but it is in fact very serious. It means your organs are starting to shut down in the body’s efforts to cool you. Detail it

But I was fine. After all, I was from Australia.

Suddenly my Aussie friend comes over. She grabs my arm and physically pulls me up and moves me.

‘You are moving. Now!’

I look at her. “I’m fine,” I insist.

‘No, you’re not. You are weaving.’

I blink in surprise. I had no idea. In fact I think I had blanked out. Plus there was another thing I knew about my friend. She was a nurse. She told me that I was within 10 minutes of full-on heatstroke.

So I let her move me to the shade, and sat with extra bottles of water.

I am normally that one who sits in the sun all day, then looks for more sun at the end of the day. This time I found that for the next rest of the next two days the sun made me feel unpleasant.

The Fourth Surprise

Did I mention that the movie was Gladiator II. It is a Ridley Scott movie.

And I got within spitting distance of Riddley Scott!

There is a clear hierarchy with movies, especially the big ones. As a movie extra you’re not even at the bottom of the hierarchy – you’re under it. Much to my disappointment on my first movie, extras don’t even get a listing in the credits.

And the director is at the top of the pecking order. Actually, the AD, or assistant director actually is – they’re the only ones who can actually tell the director what to do. The director is usually around the camera end of the action. But they do need to move around at times, sizing up a scene and rearranging things.

So, I was stoked to find Riddley Scott standing at my elbow. And beneath me in the arena. And in front of me in the market place. While he sorted some of the scenes.

And he wasn’t the only one. The payoff of those hours in the sun slowly succumbing to heatstroke was that I got to watch Paul Mescal in all his fight scenes in the arena.

I watched the actors in green suits act like monkeys, so to speak – actually, vicious apes tearing at the gladiators, while I screamed for blood and cursed like any good Roman woman would have.

That fellow is a very hard worker. While I’m complaining about sitting in the sun, he is in the arena – also in full sun – going through the movie’s various fight scenes.

Now I’ve watched the movie, and had the thrill of seeing all those scenes being put together in its final form. All to the backdrop of the amazing village of Ait Ben-Haddou.

The Fifth Surprise

I GOT TO SCREAM AT DENZEL WASHINGTON!!!

As a senator he appeared in the box and made a short speech. The audience had to cheer him – but it was quite clear nobody was cheering an announcement from a senator at a gladiator fight. We were all cheering for Denzel Washington.

 One of the great treats of the southern part of Morocco is the BBQ steak houses. As far as I can tell, they don’t do anything special with the meat – but the BBQ still tastes amazing. So if you’re down that way, make sure to get one, especially if you can get one with the spectacular valley views at the north end of the High Atlas pass. It’s a kind of a factory assembly line, via three different shops to get your meal served.

Shop 1: First you go to the meat shop. You can actually point to the hanging carcass and point to the bit that you want. They hack it off and you pay for it by its weight.

Shop 2: Then you take it to the next shop which does the cooking. You leave it with them and take your number.

Shop 3: The actual restaurant. Find a seat next door with the panoramic views of the valley. Order your salads and tea. The bread is brought as a part of the meal. When your meat is cooked, they bring it to you.

And I am telling you, whatever their tricks are, that was one of the best meals I’ve had in Morocco. Yes, the tajines are very nice, but the BBQ assembly-line at the edge of the valley beat it hands down!

Happily satisfied – and tired out from two 15 hour days – we settled for the long trip back to Tangier, daydreaming about rubbing shoulders with Riddley Scott, and screaming at Denzel Washington.

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