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Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Entertainment
Amelia Dhuga

‘The atmosphere was electric’ – the fall and rise of Morocco’s cinemas

Cinema Theatre Rialto is a classic art deco building in Casablanca, Morocco. The movie theatre opened in 1929 to seat 1,350 movie-goers and continues to operate today [Shutterstock]

“You used to be able to smoke inside,” Omar Edressi recalls about Cinema Rif, the 86-year-old movie theatre that still stands on Tangier’s Grand Socco. “The first thing that welcomed you when you entered the building was a thick cloud of vapour.”

Tickets to the cinema were a lot cheaper in the 1970s when Edressi, a local cinema lover, would visit – it cost just one dirham ($0.10) for entrance, a sandwich and a soda. Today, a ticket will set you back by roughly 50 dirham ($5) and a soda about 15 ($1.50).

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