Look this isn’t aimed at you specifically, but people who had no idea about the Western Sahara region and Sahrawi people who are now ‘outraged’ about The Odyssey filming in that region need to shut their uninformed, moronic mouths. Just stop it with the performative armchair activism. They’ve got no place to be outraged about The Odyssey filming there when that film is literally the only reason they know about it. Like, it’s on maps. It’s been on maps as a disputed region FOR YEARS. It’s literally on Google Maps! FOR YEARS!!! There’s a Wikipedia page on it! There has been FOR YEARS! I hate how incurious people are!
Personally, I have a bigger list of issues to criticize Nolan about that are directly connected to Greece.
As for the Western Sahara region - this doesn't necessarily mean that people will know about it. I'll talk from my own standpoint in the country where I was born, raised, and currently live in. The northern part of Cyprus has been illegally occupied by Turkey since 1974; Google Maps has a "border" line where the Green Line is and if you'll watch carefully, you'll notice the names are in Greek and English on the southern part of the island and in Turkish and English on the northern part of the island. Yet no one from the Great Big Abroad bats an eye. They'll refer to Keryneia as Girne, Famagusta as Magusa, go for some 'morbid tourism' in the ghost town of Varosha, believe that Cyprus is separated into North and South like Korea and treat the Republic of Cyprus (internationally acknowledged) as a 'Greek side' and the illegally occupied northern part of the isle as the 'Turkish side'. They'll go there for holiday and even compare which side they liked the best. Do they even know about the illegal invasion that took place in 1974 and exactly why that invasion is illegal? Most of them will just erase it from memory the very minute you've finished explaining it to them.
Same things apply for Cyprus that you stated for the Sahara region:
It’s been on maps as a disputed region FOR YEARS.
It’s literally on Google Maps! FOR YEARS!!!
There’s a Wikipedia page on it! There has been FOR YEARS!
Is Cyprus liberated yet? No. We remain the most heavily armed island in the Mediterranean, our capital city of Nicosia is still divided, we're the only country in the European Union under occupation and with the need of a UN army as a 'peacekeeping force'.
I'd say we look at the bright side in the case of the Sahara - at least now people know about the dispute in that region. They might even look further into it (if they care enough that is) but at least now they'll say that they've heard of some dispute between Morocco and the Sahrawi people going on about the Sahara. Heck, they'd have heard about the Sahrawi people! I do get where you're coming from, but I do think your claim about 'armchair activism' is a bit too far-fetched. Let me ask you a different question: how many times has this even been mentioned in the (global) news in the last 10 years?