an abandoned movie theater lies in the middle of the egyptian desert

situated amid the sinai peninsula in the egyptian desert, hundreds of wooden seats, among with projection equipment from an abandoned movie lies at the foot of the expansive mountainous landscape. captured in ‘end of the world cinema’ by estonian photographer kaupo kikkas, the unusual site is documented through a series of images highlighting a failed attempt of a business venture gone bad. like the abandoned star wars film sets in the tunisian desert by ra di martino, the wooden remains appear as ancient ruins, sitting still as if the seats were preserved for a future movie screening.

all images © kaupo kikkas

‘on a sunny day at the very beginning of this millennium a crazy frenchman found himself in the desert of sinai. after some puffs of a magic smoke he wondered – how come that there are no cinemas in the middle of the desert? he flew back to paris and arranged some money. after that he went to cairo to buy original old seats and projection equipment from an old cinema theatre. then came back to sinai, arranged generator for electricity a monstrous tractor to pull up the screen that was like a gigantic sail. and now everything was more or less ready for the premier. 

only detail he forgot was that this nice desert happens to be in egypt. country where local authorities are not too happy about such enthusiasm and spirit, specially if it comes from a crazy frenchmen… at the premier evening everything went ‘accidentally’ wrong, their electricity generator was sabotaged and no movies were ever screened at the end of the world cinema. so there it lies and waits – a monument from another reality and time.’ – kaupo kikkas

the wooden remains appear as ancient ruins, sitting still as if the seats were preserved for a future movie screening

view of the ‘end of the world cinema’ from google maps

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