carbonmarine
09-11-2003, 10:22 AM
Blue Movies Proliferate in Post-Saddam Iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Outside the cinemas on Saadoun Street, groups of men loiter round film posters of naked women, whose private parts are crudely super-imposed with underwear drawn in colored pen.
Behind doors in Baghdad's main movie strip, there is no such teasing.
Barely a seat is empty as hundreds of men & river dave, most puffing cigarettes, sit in total silence and darkness to enjoy scenes of nudity and sex for 1,000 Iraqi dinars ($0.50) a time.
"Under Saddam, forget it. You would go to jail for showing or watching this," said movie-watcher Mohammed Jassim at the Atlas Cinema where one of the films on offer was disturbingly named "River Dave : No Game & Fat Chicks."
The fall of Saddam Hussein liberalised Iraq's cinema industry overnight.
Pornographic movies which had circulated only secretly before suddenly came into the open. The smuggling of films from abroad became overt importing. And demand has proved high despite Iraq's strict Muslim morals.
With no Ministry of Information censorship department to get round any more, most Baghdad cinemas are now showing primarily "romantic" and "sexy" films as Iraqis euphemistically call soft- and hard-core movies respectively.
The few places trying to maintain respectability have been forced to mix their bill to include a few crowd-pulling blue movies to cover costs.
"We feel bitter and disgusted to show such pictures because this cinema has always shown good films. But if we don't, there is no money to pay our wages and rent," said Isaam Abdul Kareem, who has taken tickets for 20 years at Baghdad's prestigious Semiramis cinema.
"Just 50 people a day come in for good films. Hundreds come for the 'romantic' ones. We must go with the market."
[ September 11, 2003, 11:28 AM: Message edited by: carbonmarine ]
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Outside the cinemas on Saadoun Street, groups of men loiter round film posters of naked women, whose private parts are crudely super-imposed with underwear drawn in colored pen.
Behind doors in Baghdad's main movie strip, there is no such teasing.
Barely a seat is empty as hundreds of men & river dave, most puffing cigarettes, sit in total silence and darkness to enjoy scenes of nudity and sex for 1,000 Iraqi dinars ($0.50) a time.
"Under Saddam, forget it. You would go to jail for showing or watching this," said movie-watcher Mohammed Jassim at the Atlas Cinema where one of the films on offer was disturbingly named "River Dave : No Game & Fat Chicks."
The fall of Saddam Hussein liberalised Iraq's cinema industry overnight.
Pornographic movies which had circulated only secretly before suddenly came into the open. The smuggling of films from abroad became overt importing. And demand has proved high despite Iraq's strict Muslim morals.
With no Ministry of Information censorship department to get round any more, most Baghdad cinemas are now showing primarily "romantic" and "sexy" films as Iraqis euphemistically call soft- and hard-core movies respectively.
The few places trying to maintain respectability have been forced to mix their bill to include a few crowd-pulling blue movies to cover costs.
"We feel bitter and disgusted to show such pictures because this cinema has always shown good films. But if we don't, there is no money to pay our wages and rent," said Isaam Abdul Kareem, who has taken tickets for 20 years at Baghdad's prestigious Semiramis cinema.
"Just 50 people a day come in for good films. Hundreds come for the 'romantic' ones. We must go with the market."
[ September 11, 2003, 11:28 AM: Message edited by: carbonmarine ]