Somalis return to cinema after 30 years

By Magdalene Mukami

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AA) – Bashir Mohamed was glued to his seat, watching a Somali film on a big screen at the Somali National Theatre in Mogadishu, which has reopened recently after a three-decade hiatus.

"I never believed something like this could be possible in my hometown in Somalia," Mohamed, 28, told Anadolu Agency.

After the country's civil war broke in the early 1990s, the Somali National Theatre stopped screening movies. The facility was officially opened in 1967 as a gift from Chinese leader Mao Zedong to the Somali people. Over the years, musicals, plays, and drama festivals had been held at the theater.

Locals in the city have begun to return to the theatre to watch Somali movies. Since last week, the Somali National Theatre has been screening two films, and people are flocking to see them despite paying a high ticket price.

Two movies, Hoos, an inspiring story about homelessness and how a person may rise above such hardship, and Date From Hell, a comedy-drama about a date that turned bad, are currently screening with English subtitles.

"I have always wondered how it feels to be inside a cinema," Mohamed, who have never been to the movie theater before, said. " I'm 28 years old, and the fact that movies have not been shown here for over 30 years means I've never experienced how it feels,” he continued.

Mohamed described his experience "so interesting that he was hooked to the chair."

"It was amazing. I never imagined something like this could happen in my hometown in Somalia," he said.

According to Mohamed, there was strict security at the theater's entrance, with so many security checks. "This time, the government was serious about security,” he added.

"I never could have thought the theater could ever opened again and people would allowed to go and watch movies," another filmgoer Axmed Liban, 52, said.

"When I first saw a movie, I was very young. It was relaxing and entertaining, and I'm glad that this is returning at a time when Somalia's people need it most," he said, praising the government's efforts to restore entertainment in the country, and adding: "We need peace and entertainment which unite people."

- Somali warlords

Warlords utilized the theater as a military base in their fight for the control of Mogadishu, the capital.

In 2012, a suicide bomber targeted the theatre, killing four people and critically injuring more than a dozen others, including three journalists and a member of the Somali parliament who were attending an event commemorating the 28th anniversary of the Somali National Television.

"No one could have anticipated that a region that had experienced so much at the hands of terror could bring so much joy to the people," Jamilah Waris, a 48-year-old mother of three, told Anadolu Agency.

"Young people were taking selfies and secretly recording the screen to share with their social media friends. They were overjoyed," Waris said, and added: "However, for those of us who have been there before, it is a warm and pleasant experience."

Kaif Jama, a 24-year-old filmmaker who wrote and performed in the movie Hoos, urged all Somalis to visit the theater, which he described as a "magical place."

"We want Somali movies to be shown to our people so that we can raise our children and everyone else in our culture," she explained.