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

An important focus for socialising and learning until the 1980s, Morocco’s art-deco cinemas are undergoing a revival.

“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).

“Of course, back then we had to set up our own chairs and the place was pretty shabby, but we would still spend whole afternoons as happy as could be,” he laughs.

An art-deco building, Cinema Rif stands out from a crowd of whitewashed restaurants and shuttered buildings on Grand Socco, a quaint, palm-ringed square marking the entrance of the city’s ancient medina.

Emblazoned with bold red paint and colourful film posters, the establishment was recently restored; plush red chairs and a glaring white screen can now be found inside the glittering theatre.