The curtain falls on Baghdad movie theatres [View All]

[Barrett808]

The curtain falls on Baghdad movie theatres
by Karim Sahib

BAGHDAD (AFP) - There was a huge queue this week outside the Firdoos Cinema in central Baghdad, with a line of cars snaking back down Sadun Street in the relentless heat of an Iraqi summer day.

Unfortunately, the drivers were not waiting to buy tickets for a new box-office hit, but to fill their tanks at an adjacent petrol station lucky enough to have secured a small stock of fuel despite a city-wide shortage.

The entrance to the once thriving movie theatre has filled up with drifting piles of refuse, a testament to the demise of what was once Baghdad's most popular form of night-time entertainment.

...


It is the same story at the nearby Babel Cinema, where caretaker Salem Hassan gazed sadly at the dusty panes of glass and the fading posters advertising long-forgotten films.

"At least 30 families used to make their living from the tickets sold at this window," he said. "But now the owner has fled the country in fear of his life. The theatre is no more a place of entertainment. It is haunted."

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060827/wl_mideast_afp/afplifestyleiraqcinema