Back in 2010, Rome-based artist and photographer Rä di Martino ventured into the Tunisian desert to find the abandoned movie sets from the original Star Wars movie. The remote desert location was used in 1976 to film Lars Homestead on Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine. In her series entitled No More Stars, Martino explains:
“This is a series of photographs taken in the abandoned movie sets of the film saga Star Wars, filmed through the years in different locations in the south of Tunisia. Unexpectedly those sets have been left on location, probably because in the middle of nowhere and because no-one from the local authorities complained and therefore after years some of it have now become ruins, almost as some sort strange archaeological sites. The particular hot and dry climate has helped maintain intact many parts of the sets, or buried under the sand just sections of it. The sets visited are in four different locations.”
While the series of photos were taken years before, in 2012 a group of Star Wars fans raised money to restore the abandoned movie sets. When the group arrived on May 27, the domed home remembered by many from the film looked battered and crumbling, but by the time the group took photos on June 1, it was repaired, replastered, and painted a shining white.
Well, we don’t know. We think we prefer the photos from before the restoration.
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