{"id":4647,"date":"2026-08-04T16:40:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T16:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/?p=4647"},"modified":"2026-08-18T11:29:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:29:33","slug":"names-places-and-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/?p=4647","title":{"rendered":"Names, Places, and Spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Steve Rockwell<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atlas Film Studios in Morocco is the largest film studio in the world by land area, spanning over 322,000 square feet. Morocco has a thriving movie industry, and Atlas Film Studios is at its center. Variations on the image of Atlas bearing the world on his shoulders has proliferated over the centuries. Its depiction has stuck with me for as long as I can remember, Atlas having graced the cover of a Finnish encyclopedia called, Pikku Jattilainen (The Little Giant), a book that we owned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The 1944 Pikku J\u00e4ttil\u00e4inen<\/em><\/strong> cover has the distinctive image of a kneeling figure carrying the globe on his back<\/strong>, with PIKKU J\u00c4TTIL\u00c4INEN<\/em> printed above it. It was edited by Yrj\u00f6 Karilas<\/strong> and published by WSOY (Werner S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The circle of my five-year-old world was tiny. I knew just three of its four quarters. To the north behind our house was a community center with an outdoor stage that put on a production of Hansel and Gretel. Across the road on the south side was a house with a coffee grinder, clearly visible through its kitchen window. Downhill to the road east lay the city \u2013 just a bicycle ride to the Helsinki Police Department for my father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The road westward, however, was ripe for discovery, and its opportunity arose with a convenient distraction. On this particular day, my mother was hosting a hen party. A discrete slip, followed by a quick walk, for what seemed like forever, took me to a crossroads. When the evergreen horizon of teeth began morphing into silhouetted scarecrows, I knew it was journey’s end. Returning somewhat winded, I was pleased with my mother’s steamy chicory coffee \u2013 milky with a side of “korppu” (coffee bread rusk). With a dunk and rotation of the crisp around the rim of the cup came a sense of completion and satisfaction \u2013 an adventure private to myself. The background chatter and laughter of the hen party supplied its soundtrack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Martin
Martin Scorsese\u2019s Kundun<\/em> <\/strong>(1997) was substantially produced and filmed at Atlas Corporation Studios in Ouarzazate, Morocco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shooting for Scorsese\u2019s Kundun<\/em> began at Atlas Corporation Studios on August 26, 1996, finishing on December 20. The Atlas Mountains and desert landscape stood in for the Tibetan “Roof of the World.” Other Moroccan locations were used, but Atlas Studios was the main base. Still there, are the massive Tibetan palace sets and gates that were built for the biopic by Dante Ferretti, a production designer known for constructing historical worlds that are as much psychological spaces. He created a Tibetan world within Morocco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kundun<\/em> screenwriter, Melissa Mathison, not only based it on the life of the 14th Dalai Lama, but cooperated with him and members of his family during its development. A crucial scene has a 19-year-old Dalai Lama travelling to Beijing in 1954-55 to meet with Mao Tse-Tung. Written into the script is his recollection of their exchange word for word: \u201cYour attitude is good, you know. I understand you well. But you need to learn this: religion is poison. It undermines the race and it retards the progress of the people. Tibet has been poisoned by religion.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Martin
Martin Scorsese\u2019s Kundun<\/em> <\/strong>(1997), Dalai Lama at 19 meeting with Mao Tse-Tung<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mao’s phrase \u201creligion is poison\u201d becomes the hinge of the entire film. What follows is the destruction of Tibetan religious culture, the violence, and the Dalai Lama’s ultimate flight into exile. The young Dalai Lama had arrived optimistic and hopeful, even having considered reconciling some Marxist ideas with Buddhism, but the meeting was a train wreck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Atlas of Greek mythology, a second-generation Titan, had unparalleled physical strength. He was the battlefield commander for the older generation of Titan gods, who ultimately failed in their rebellion against Zeus and the Olympians. His punishment was harsh and highly visible, Zeus condemning him to stand at the western edge of the world to hold up the celestial sphere on his shoulders for all eternity. Geographically, his shoulders would have covered what is now the Atlas Mountain Range. While contemporaries render him holding up the world, in Greek antiquity it was the sky that he held up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tibetan
Tibetan Buddhists at its Canadian Cultural Centre during Dalai Lama’s visit on October 31, 2007 in Toronto. Photo by Beatrice Egolf<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Titan Road is a street in west-end Toronto. On Wednesday, October 31, 2007, the 14th Dalai Lama visited the Tibetan-Canadian Cultural Centre which had just opened there. He blessed the facility and greeted hundreds of people, with crowds reportedly lining up around the block for hours. I can attest to that since I was there. The printing company that employed me was at 30 Titan Road, the Dalai Lama’s visit taking place at number 40, just next door. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All morning, that day Tibetan monks made their way by foot, single file, down the street eventually encircling the Titan Road buildings at 30 and 40. We listened to continuous reports on the radio as the car with the Dalai Lama progressed to its destination here. When he did arrive, I felt that I needed to witness the event, like many others. It seemed odd to have been close enough to the Dalai Lama to have shaken his hand and said hello, had I wished to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dalai
Dalai Lama at Tibetan-Canadian Cultural Centre during his visit on October 31, 2007 in Toronto. Photo by Beatrice Egolf<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

More significantly, as I reflect now, is the Dalai Lama’s stopping by the entrance of our building on Titan, less than 30 feet from the carpentry shop that had fabricated my Meditations on Space<\/em> panels. (The current occupant at 30 Titan Rd., Unit #1 is MedPure, a medical supply facility). The book work was printed December, 1996. Shooting for Scorsese\u2019s Kundun<\/em> at Atlas Corporation Studios in Morocco finished on December 20, 1996. My own construction, painting, and publication had synchronized with Ferretti’s set design and Scorsese’s filming of Kundun<\/em> to the same month and year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Steve Rockwell Atlas Film Studios in Morocco is the largest film studio in the world by land area, spanning over 322,000 square feet. Morocco has a thriving movie industry, and Atlas Film Studios is at its center. Variations on the image of Atlas bearing the world on his shoulders has proliferated over the centuries. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Names, Places, and Spaces”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","category-general","category-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4647"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4863,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647\/revisions\/4863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}