Matmata was one of the few places we visited where people actually seemed aware of a movie called "Star Wars." The bar at Sidi Driss was covered with Star Wars photographs and post cards. The hotel's management had gone to the trouble of painting "Mos Eisley Cantina" on the door of the hotel. Unfortunately, this seemed to lead many tourists to conclude that the famous cantina scenes had been shot on this location. (The Cantina is actually located many miles east, on the island of Djerba.)

An actual, important filming location is now a dining room, located right next to the bar. This is the room where, over green milk poured out of topless Tupperware, Luke tells his cranky Uncle Owen he's decided to transmit his application to the Academy. Being hopeless geeks ourselves, we politely but insistently conveyed to our waiter, through copious pointing and bad high school French, that it was necessary that we be seated in this room for dinner.

Twenty years on, it's hard to believe that some of the set decorations have still survived here, but the ribbing applied around the door is still very much in evidence.

You can see in this image that the dining room interior from the movie scene looks almost identical to the room today. Unfortunately, Hotel Sidi Driss was out of blue milk while we were there, but the experience was unforgettable.

The ceiling decorations are not altogether original. We were given to understand that it was repainted by a devoted French fan a few years back.