The Death of Cinema in Gaza
As Islamist leaders in Gaza maintain a tight grip on the country’s cultural scene, Gazans themselves are divided in their views on cinema, writes Asmaa al-Ghoul.
Heavy slabs of concrete seal the doors of al-Nasr Cinema in Gaza City. Not one aperture exists through which you can see the interior of the building, which has been abandoned for decades. Its towering walls loom over the street, stained black from the old fire. In the 1980s, these walls housed one of the largest cinemas in the Middle East, but now new generations in the Gaza Strip grow old having never been inside a cinema.
Memories of better times
Some in Gaza recall the heyday of cinema, when different theaters would compete for customers. Others, though, view that time as a period of decadence before the so-called Islamic awakening.
Producer-director Khalil Almuzain, 49, told Al-Monitor: “When cinema first came to Rafah, it was as if fireworks went off in the neighborhood. There was no television or electricity at that time, and the people of the towns would gather around a single radio and listen. Suddenly the world of cinema was opened to us. To an impoverished boy from a refugee camp, it was an amazing thing. I used to scavenge copper from abandoned British rubbish left behind from the mandate on the border between Rafah and Egypt and sell it at a low price so that I could make enough to buy a ticket to the cinema." That was in the 1970s.
