Moroccan Film Industry Urges Government to Reopen Cinemas After Record-Breaking 407-Day Closure

"Morocco now holds the sad world record for the number of days of cinema closures during the Covid crisis: 407 consecutive days," we can read in the letter dated May 4 and addressed to the supervisory authority, informs TelQuel, adding that the stakeholders wish to make "a first proposal that the health authorities will be able to adjust", by mutual agreement.

"It is particularly unfair that even closed, we [...] still pay taxes while we are in a state of asphyxiation," they denounce, citing "platforms such as Netflix which are raking in hundreds of millions of dirhams in revenue in Morocco without paying any taxes [...] and that, under their eyes, many sectors have gradually resumed their activities.

Despite the aid granted to cinemas, the ministry is not unaware of the impact of such a long closure. Namely a monthly aid of 2,000 dirhams for employees declared to the CNSS and the support premium for reopening, which is equivalent to one month’s turnover of their best year among the last three years. "They have already received 50% of this premium and the remaining 50% will be paid upon the effective reopening of the theaters," the same source reports, citing Sarim Fassi Fihri, the director of the Moroccan Cinematographic Center (CCM) last March. And Pierre-François Bernet, director of Cinéatlas, to underline the "four additional months of fixed charges (which are added to the months of April, May and June 2020, editor’s note)".

Measures that are far from satisfying the professionals concerned who deplore that "out of 14 months of closure, only 7 months of