Through the decades, downtown Kabul’s Ariana Cinema had weathered revolution and war, emerging battered and bruised but still standing to entertain Afghans with Bollywood movies and American action flicks. Now, it is no more.
On December 16, demolition crews began to tear down the historic cinema, which first opened its doors to moviegoers in the early 1960s. A week later, there was nothing left.
“It’s not just a building made of bricks and cement that is being destroyed, but the Afghan cinema lovers who resisted and continued their art despite the hardships and severe security problems,” Afghan film director and actor Amir Shah Talash told The Associated Press. “Unfortunately, all the signs of historical Afghanistan are being destroyed.”
Hearing about the Ariana Cinema’s destruction was “very painful and sad news for me,” said Talash, who has been active in Afghanistan’s film industry since 2004 but has been living in France since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government, which seized power in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops, has imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law which has introduced a raft of restrictions, including bans on most forms of entertainment such as films and music.
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