The battle for the Kabul Nandari cinema Farhad Nuri
After the controversial demolition of ‘Cinema Park’, a historic 70-year old movie house in Kabul, Afghanistan’s government has announced a decision to potentially restore the city’s Kabul Nandari cinema which had also fallen into disrepair.
It is calling on the country’s filmmakers, artists as well as the public to send in proposals for how to rescue the old building.
The decision to demolish Cinema Park was ordered by the vice president, Amrullah Saleh. In its place was built a cultural centre. But the decision was met with anger, opposed by the country’s artistic community - including Sahraa Karimi, chair of the Afghan Film Organisation, and the only woman in Afghanistan with a PhD in cinema and filmmaking - as well as members of the general public.