The story of a world-champion long-distance runner from Western Sahara - Africa's last colony - who left behind his family, his athletics career and his citizenship to run for a nation that doesn't exist

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26 year old Salah Ameidan is a Sahrawi who grew up in the Moroccan-controlled area of Western Sahara –officially Africa’s last colony - and was forced to join Morocco's junior athletics team at age 12. By 1999 he was the triple cross-country champion for Morocco, 2nd place in the Africa Championships and two-time Arab World Champion. In 2003, during a race in France, he took a political and professional risk from which he and his family have never recovered.

As he approached the last 200m in the lead of an 8km race, he pulled out a Sahrawi flag - illegal in Morocco and a symbol of the "Sahrawi Intifada" - and waived it across the finish line. Knowing he would be arrested on arrival in Morocco, he immediately sought political asylum in France and has been there ever since.

Since that day, Salah has come to represent the Sahrawi people not only in major sporting events around the world, but as a spokesman and ambassador for their cause. "With each victory I achieve in running," he says, "I denounce these violations on behalf of my people and I reaffirm my Saharawi identity."

But Salah has paid heavily for his activism. When still in Morocco, his family home was repeatedly raided. He was blindfolded, taken to prison, interrogated and tortured. After moving to France, three members of his family were imprisoned for non-violent resistance in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara. Even in the relative safety of France, he has been attacked four times by people opposed to his high-profile campaigning, most recently while training with Paula Radcliffe in the Pyrenees. Having refused an offer of nationality from Spain and France, he has no citizenship.

On the 10th anniversary of the Sahara Marathon - an annual event bringing runners from all over the world to run in solidarity with the Sahrawi people – The Runner will tell Salah’s story as it reflects the current reality in the Western Sahara and will follow him as he tirelessly pursues his ultimate goal: establishing an Olympic team recognised to compete for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in London's 2012 games.

The Runner is not a film about the Western Sahara, or about the Sahara Marathon - it is a film about Salah, a man with an extraordinary talent who gave up everything he had in order to use his running as a form of protest and activism. In international competitions, he insists on being registered under Western Sahara, despite the fact that the state is not recognised by international sporting bodies. Every time the name Western Sahara is listed on the results board, he says, it acts as a reminder of Morocco's continued - and illegal - colonisation.

In keeping with Director Saeed Taji Farouky's earlier work, the film will also explore the relationship between filmmaker and subject as it raises questions about the media portrayal of a major political issue that remains largely unknown.

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