The Ariana cinema, a Kabul landmark built in the 1960s and restored by a French-led project in 2004, is being demolished to make way for a shopping mall. Damaged during the 1992–1996 civil war, the venue fell into disuse after the Taliban returned in 2021 and banned films and music. Residents and filmmakers, including Atiq Rahimi, condemned the demolition as an erasure of cultural memory. Park Cinema has already been torn down for a similar development.
Historic Ariana Cinema in Kabul Bulldozed for Mall — Artists and Locals Decry Cultural Loss
The Ariana cinema in 2010 (Manan VATSYAYANA)(Manan VATSYAYANA/AFP/AFP)
The Ariana cinema, a Kabul landmark built in the 1960s and restored in 2004, is being demolished to make way for a shopping mall, AFP journalists reported on Thursday.
Damaged and ransacked during Afghanistan's 1992–1996 civil war, the Ariana was restored in a French-led project that reopened the venue in 2004. The restoration was overseen by architects Frederic Namur and Jean-Marc Lalo and financed by an association led by French director Claude Lelouch.
Following the Taliban's return to power in 2021 and the imposition of strict bans on films, music and public entertainment, the cinema was reduced to occasional propaganda screenings and later closed permanently. On Thursday a bulldozer was seen knocking down walls and clearing rubble at the site; a banner on the property announced a plan to build a 'standard modern market'.
"It shattered my heart, the news of the demolition of the Ariana Cinema. We had a lot of good memories from the cinema," a 65-year-old Kabul resident, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons, told AFP.
Long before conflict closed its doors, the Ariana screened a wide range of films: Indian and Iranian movies in its early years and later Russian, English, French and other European films. Audience members remember evenings of passionate viewing, including revolutionary and socially engaged cinema that drew community attention.
French-Afghan writer and filmmaker Atiq Rahimi, whose first film was screened at the revived Ariana in 2004, called the demolition an erasure of cultural memory. In exile, he told AFP:
"The Ariana cinema was not a ruin to be demolished, but a memory to be revived. It was already destroyed once by the civil war. This time, it's worse: it's being erased in the name of 'modernity' — a soulless modernity, without images, without shared silence in the dark."
Another Kabul movie house, Park Cinema, has already been demolished and is also set to be replaced by a shopping mall. For many residents and artists, the loss of these cinemas represents more than changing real estate: it marks the disappearance of shared cultural spaces and memories that once anchored city life.
