KABUL  –  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 mediamen. “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. Shortly after taking over, the new government ordered all cinemas to stop operating. On May 13 this year, it announced the dissolution of the Afghan Film Administration. The Ariana, built on municipal land by a busy traffic roundabout was shuttered and remained in limbo. 

But Kabul authorities later decided the cinema, with its stylish marquee and plush red seats, had to make way for a new shopping complex. “Cinemas themselves are a kind of commercial activity, and that area was a completely commercial area and had the potential for a good market there,” Kabul Municipality spokesman Niamatullah Barakzai said. The municipality aims to develop the land it owns “to generate good income from its resources and bring positive changes in the city,” he added. The Ariana opened in 1963, its sleek architecture mirroring the modernizing spirit the then-ruling monarchy was trying to bring to the deeply traditional nation. But Afghanistan was soon plunged into conflict. The Soviets invaded in 1979, and by the late 1980s war raged across the country, as Soviet-backed President Najibullah’s government fought an American-backed coalition of warlords and Islamic militants. He was toppled in 1992, but a bloody civil war ensued. The Ariana suffered heavy damage and lay in ruins for years. In 1996, the Taliban took over Kabul, and whatever cinemas in the city had survived were shuttered. The Ariana was given a new lease of life after the Taliban’s 2001 ouster by the US-led invasion, with the French government helping to rebuild it in 2004. Indian films were particularly popular, as were action movies, while the Ariana also began playing Afghan movies resulting from a revival of the domestic film industry.