This art deco cinema stands in the historic heart of Tangier, Morocco.

The Rif is one of the many architectural relics from the city's international past.

From 1923 to 1956, when Morocco became independent, Tangier was administered by major world powers, like Britain, France and Spain.

Its very cosmopolitan residents watched films from around the world in a variety of languages.

Yto Barrada is the director of the reopened Rif cinema, now the Cinematheque Tangier.

"This cinema when we found it was playing Bollywood films, with people smoking inside. It was raining in the screening room. It was a 600 seat theatre and it was going to be turned in to a supermarket. It was just for sale, the lease was for sale. What we did is we worked for 8 years to create a film archive and an art-house cinema in this building," she says.

In the year 2000, the cinema started undergoing major renovations, before becoming the home to the Cinematheque Tangier in 2007.

With new projection equipment, new seats and a new screen, the modernised Rif is barely recognisable, if it weren't for its striking art deco architecture.

Regular Sophie Aouine says it is a great meeting place.

"There are great retrospectives of world cinema. It's a place that is in the centre of town, next to the market and near the souq. And it's a sociable place where you can have a tea or coffee, chat about films, listen to music and also meet people from the town," she says.

Rachid Tafersslti is President of Al Boorez, a group based in Tangier that devotes itself to promoting the heritage of the city and supporting restoration and sustainable development.

He says the cinema's architecture is a reminder to the city's historic past.

"Because Tangier was the diplomatic capital of Morocco during the 19th and early 20th century it absorbed European influences, especially when it came to buildings- Spanish, French, Italian and this influenced all buildings and especially on cinemas, which have maintained this very particular style of architecture - art deco," he says.

The Rif is only one of many art deco cinemas around Tangier.

But many, like the Goya cinema and the Mauritania cinema, remain closed.

Historian Rachel Muyal explains that once Morocco gained independence in 1956, the cinemas became deserted, as European residents left.

"Immediately after 1956, between '56 and '60, the town almost emptied. Because first of all the civil servants had to be changed. All the jobs that had been held by the French, the Spanish or the British had to go to Moroccans, so all the French, Spanish and British families left. The same thing happened to the Jews. They mostly, and by that I mean 99%, had worked for banks or businesses. All the banks and businesses closed so whole families left. Tangier was empty. So, when Tangier was abandoned so were the cinemas," she says.

The state's film body, the Centre Cinematographique du Maroc, or CCM, has plans to re-open some of the art deco cinemas.

Nourredine Sail, director of the CCM, says they want to increasing the number of cinemas across the country.

"There are old local cinemas in the middle of the old town with 300 to 350 seats which have been closed for a long time. This category of cinema - and I think there are between 40 and 50 in the country, we are trying to get them dealt with by the local council for each town. The CCM together with the Local Councils will invest in them so as to make them available for films that the local population can enjoy," he says.

AP