1958 Homs, Syria

Motie Khaled Rajjoub
Born in 1946
First Movie Memories from Homs, Syria
Interviewed on 09/12/2019
by Rami Rajjoub

(Interview was translated from Arabic to English)

Throughout my childhood, I didn’t have access to many movies. The earliest movie I remember watching was when I was thirteen years old. It was a crazy time in Syria during my adolescence; Syria had won independence from France and we were finally our own country for the first time so our economy and politics were very hectic. Because of our French occupation, only the big cities like Aleppo and Damascus had cinemas, so people like me who grew up in the small villages of Syria had to travel long distances in order to indulge in the benefits the big cities had to offer. Because my father was a businessman, he traveled to the big cities a lot, but he was always on a tight schedule, so the idea of watching films was nonsense. It wasn’t until I was twelve or thirteen years old when I had even heard the term “theatre” when a small local cinema called Bybloswas opened in our town of Homs. All my school friends were fussing about the cinema, saying that it was the coolest place to be. The atmosphere around going to the movie was quite exciting but I didn’t really understand why all my friends wanted to go to; I guess they had wanted to try something new and so my two friends, Wael and Basel, convinced me to go with them.

Byblos was in the center of the town, near the market square, so we walked together at night. I remember it was a warm, summer evening yet the city center was full of life. The theatre itself was quite small, so when we walked into the theatre, there was a strong aroma of nuts sweets that greets you. Tickets didn’t really cost us very much, it was only a couple of Syrian Lira. There was a concession stand in the center of the entrance, and they mainly served a variety of bizer (pumpkin seeds), cashews, almonds, and many other kinds of nuts. There was also different gums and mints, as well as a couple of famous candy brands.

The first film we ever watched was called “Bab El Hadid” (The Iron Gate), which was a popular Egyptian drama film. At the time, the film capital of the Middle East was Cairo, Egypt, so most of the distribution that came into Syria was from Egypt since we hadn’t really started making movies yet. During this time, there was a lot of regime changes happening within the political side of the country, so there was a lot of censorship restrictions on films that could be brought in and seen. Anything that belittled any of the Arab governments was removed or destroyed and usually, the movie directors would be imprisoned. Also, Syria and the rest of the Arab nations were embroiled with Israeli threats and attacks from the West, so many people, especially the boys, were feeling uneasy at the time as they were preparing for a new war. This new cinema seemed to bring people together and for a while, it was a place people could forget about their problems and enjoy traveling through a new world.

Oh how well the Egyptians acted. They had this flair and confidence in their delivery, especially with their dramatic parts of the film, it almost seemed very natural and real. There was also a lot of natural comedy within the film as well. I remember hearing the laughs echoing through the screening area and feeling happy. I remember the plot was based on a man who sold newspapers in a central train station but he fell in love with a woman who also worked near the train station. However, she loved another man who was a big shot worker at the station. While watching the movie, there strong feelings of love and obsession that arose throughout the film, making the experience much more enjoyable. It was a plot a lot of people could relate to during my time. I vividly remember the actor Youssef Chahine in the film because after “Bab El Hadid” came out, he became a celebrity all over the Arab nations.

After that experience, I didn’t really watch a lot more films. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very enjoyable experience, but there weren’t many interesting films that made their way to Syria during my time period. As I got older, more and more cinemas started getting built all over our towns and now my children have seen a lot more films. These days, I see a lot of movie reruns on our television set on popular channels like ART or MBC, especially when our family gets together at big re-unions. I guess movies have become a big part of our lives these days.