In an attempt to turn back the anti-celluloid tide, a new multiplex opened this week in the heart of Damascus.
"It's an attempt to win back the public," says filmmaker Omar Amiralay optimistically of the CinemaCity complex which comprises two separate movie theatres, a rash of restaurants and a bookshop.
The inauguration of the complex was the first time since 1985 that a new cinema has opened its doors in the Syrian capital, and brings to about 10 the number of theatres catering to a population of some four million people.
Just two of the 10 are functioning effectively, however.
Amiralay blames the government for the demise of cinema in Syria.
Between 1970 and 2001, the state's National Film Organisation (NFO) "had the monopoly over imported films," he says.
At the same time the NFO, which was established to promote local artistic films, instead "ended up promoting commercial films" for financial reasons, adds Amiralay, bemoaning what he calls the "collapse of culture."
The situation is the same countrywide, with the total number of cinemas across Syria dropping from 158 in 1964 to only 36 today -- in a country of 22 million people.
Most of those theatres still functioning are badly maintained and show fast-action bad-quality movies made in Egypt or Asia -- watched mainly by unemployed men in search of escape from their daily boredom.
These days, says dejected cinema owner Ibrahim Nejme, the only fare that will ensure any sort of audience at all are B-grade action flicks.
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-- People no longer come --


In the 1960s and 1970s heading to the cinema featured high on the list of popular social outings. But not any more, says Nejme, who owns two old cinema halls in Damascus, the As-Sufara and the Al-Khayyam.

"People no longer come," he says gloomily, blaming high taxes levied by the government on even low-priced tickets and the arrival of DVDs for the malaise afflicting cinema in Syria.

Even the latest Oscar-winning "Batman" movie was ignored by the public.

"Takings did not even cover the advertising costs," Nejme says bitterly. "Those selling the pirated DVDs now control the market."

His complaint is confirmed by 40-year-old Bassam, who works as a driver and who says he last went to the cinema five years ago.

"Why pay four dollars to watch a film when I can get a copy for 30 cents and watch it from the comfort of my armchair?" asks Bassam, who gave only his first name.

Actor and filmmaker Abed Fahd recalls that in 1975, the port city of Latakia where he grew up boasted seven cinemas. "Even surrounding villages had their own movie houses," he says nostagically.

Today only one movie house, the Al-Kindi -- affiliated with the NFO -- remains open in Latakia, which has a population of about a million people.

Lack of funds is preventing entrepreneurs from investing in the industry, "which is recording constant losses," says Firas Ibrahim, actor, director and producer of Syria's popular "Asmahane" television series.

As a child, he lived in the small village of Messiaf in western Syria, where he would regularly go to the cinema with his father.

But these days the theatre, which once welcomed movie stars from across the Arab world, "has been turned into a windmill," he says sadly.

Ibrahim adds that he would love to produce films, "but the infrastructure does not exist in Syria."

Syrian movie makers are regarded as being among the most creative in the Arab world.

Directors such as Amiralay, Mohammad Malas, Usama Mohammad, Abdellatif Abdelhamid and Nabil Maleh are regularly invited to international film festivals where they are feted.

At home, however, their movies seldom get a screening.