Moroccan cinemas close their doors

01/04/2007

The future of Moroccan cinema is uncertain. With the number of theatres down from 280 in 1980 to just 85 today, representatives of the nation's film industry seek to identify the causes of this downturn.

By Sarah Touahri for Magharebia in Rabat – 01/04/07

[Sarah Touahri]

The number of cinemas in Morocco has fallen steadily since the 1980s. Hassan Belcadi, secretary general of the Moroccan Cinema Association, says that it fell from 280 in 1980 to just 85 in the whole of the country by the end of 2006. Belcadi owns four cinemas in Casablanca and feels his livelihood is now under threat.

A number of cities now have no cinemas at all, and the capital has only three. Film-maker Fouad Souiba told Magharebia that this is an absurd and unfortunate state of affairs for Rabat: "we need to respond quickly to turn the situation around."

Actor Mohamed Majd deplores the closure of cinemas at a time when Morocco is experiencing a film-making renaissance. He urgently wishes to see a solution to stop what he calls a catastrophe, because otherwise he fears that the country may be left with only one cinema in ten years’ time. Film-makers and cinema owners have tried repeatedly to draw attention to the problem, but to no avail.

Director Saad Charaib explains that when the government worked out the details of its policy to support film production ($3.5 million annually), it failed to create a parallel policy to expand the broadcasting and cinema operation sector. He says that the total number of cinema-goers in 2000 was 13 million, whereas now the figure has dropped to 5 million. In his view there are several reasons, but chief among them is piracy, which draws many Moroccans away from cinemas. They would rather buy a film for ten dirhams than pay 30 dirhams to watch it at the cinema. Some are happy just to walk by cinemas to find out what new films have come out, he said.

Art critic Abdel Ilah Jouhari agrees. He says that piracy has hit not only cinemas, but also the economy as a whole. Jouhari said that cinemas are no longer living up to the expectations of cinema enthusiasts because "all the owners think about is the commercial side and their profits." Jouhari says that while film production in Morocco is thriving

more than ever (15 feature films per year and a number of short films), the domestic market is shrinking. He urges the Moroccan Film Centre to bring cinema-goers back by promoting a culture of the arts in schools and universities, by tackling piracy in the market, and by encouraging the creation of new cinemas for cultural as well as commercial reasons.

The national director of the Moroccan Film Centre, Noureddine Sail, thinks that one way to stop cinema closures might be to create an investment fund for cinema construction. "Rather than be a means of giving support to cinema owners, it would be aimed at people who want to invest in the sector, in accordance with criteria set by the public."