Baghdad 'to host' film festival

Cinemas were burned after Baghadad was invaded in 2003

Baghdad is to host an international film festival, according to the news agency Agence France-Presse.

Iraqi film director Dr Abdul Basit Salman said it will be the first major cinematic event in the war-ravaged capital in more than two years.

Movies will be submitted from Egypt, Jordan and Iran, the agency said.

The three-day event, which is being staged by the Association of Iraqi Filmmakers Without Borders, will run from 16 December.

Economic sanctions

The Al-Mansour hotel, which hosted a festival of short films in 2005, has been ruled out of being a possible venue.

It's after 12 people were killed in the hotel foyer in June after a suicide bomber attacked a meeting of tribal leaders.

Iraq's film industry dates back to the 1940s with families attending cinemas on a weekly basis in the 70s and 80s.

However the 1991 Gulf war and the economic sanctions that followed it saw theatres going into decline.

Cinemas were burned and attacked after the 2003 conflict.