The exact date of the first public movie screening in the world is not clear. But according to available evidence, on December 28, 1895, the Lumière brothers invited people to come to the Grand Café in Paris and watch a series of short scenes they had created with the cinematograph. Over time, filmmakers also used shopping malls and opera houses. Later, in 1905, when the Russian cinematographers were active, the manager of an opera house in St. Petersburg allocated a store for screening the movies, and thus the first cinema was officially established. Gradually, the number of new cinemas increased. Undoubtedly, at that time no one imagined that one day in one of the southern cities of Iran a terrible crime will be committed in a cinema, a crime in which hundreds of people were burned to death.
The story of this horrific incident began in 1978 when the people’s struggle against the Pahlavi regime had reached a critical juncture and the government could not control the revolutionary movements. At that time, the Pahlavi regime sought to maintain its power by designing and implementing various strategies. Yet, the regime was unaware that, due to its lack of legitimacy, people would oppose the measures taken by the government and so most of them would be backfired.
In such circumstances, the distance between the state and the nation caused the opposition to the government to take various forms, one of which was opposing the cultural and economic manifestations of the regime. Accordingly, some people, sometimes with prior notice, began setting fire to some cinemas and banks in the middle of the night. Such actions were never approved by Imam Khomeyni and the Muslim forces, but these events provided the SAVAK with the spark it needed for committing a horrific crime in the Cinema Rex in Abadan.
Accordingly, on August 19, 1978, in the middle of the holy month of Ramadhan, at around 10 pm while the audiences were watching “The Deer” (an Iranian drama film directed by Masoud Kimiaei), they suddenly found themselves trapped by the terrible flames of fire.
The fire started from the east part of the cinema and quickly spread throughout the hall. The intensity of the fire showed that probably flammable materials had been moved to the cinema hours before the fire starts.
The terrified people rushed to the exit doors of the cinema to escape the fire and save their lives, but no matter how hard they tried, the doors were not opened. It was as if all the exit doors were tightly locked with chains. Some died while trying to escape the fire. Some died of suffocation as they breathed the carbon monoxide for hours.
The young children, who were more terrified than others, died in the very first minutes. People inside the cinema were crying, shouting, asking for help, and mentioning the names of the Imams, religious leaders and their relatives. Some people managed to get to the shopping mall which was next to the cinema through the windows on the next floor.
Because of the flammable materials inside the cinema the fire rapidly spread. A few moments later, the collapse of a large part of the roof escalated the catastrophe. About 400 people were inside the hall at the time of the incident, of which 377 were martyred, ten were injured and several others were survived. The small number of wounded and survivors shows that this plot was planned to kill all the people.
The smell of the burnt flesh, blood and bones, along with the smell of burning wood, cloth and plastic, pervaded the area for hours after the accident. Many bodies could not be identified due to the severity of the burns.
This tragedy, in which individuals were massacred, is considered one of the darkest tragedies in history because of its various dimensions.
One of the questions regarding this incident is the reaction of the police and rescue forces to control the fire and saving the lives of the people. The Shahrbani office which was near the cinema sent his officers to the scene about half an hour later after the fire starts. As soon as the officers arrived, they surrounded the place and prevented people from saving the injured. Claiming that they intended to arrest the perpetrators of the crime, the officers not only prevented people from getting closer to the scene but also, they beat and arrested the injured survivors and those who managed to get out of the cinema windows. Likewise, rescue teams and firefighters arrived late and did not have sufficient equipment and all firefighting valves near the cinema were either buried under a pile of dirt or damaged.
The rescue teams could break the door and save the lives of the injured, yet they did not do so. Even they could help the injured by smashing a hole through the wall of the cinema. Nevertheless, not only they did not take such measures but also, they prevented the people from doing so.
On the other hand, the Abadan Oil Refining Company, which had advanced fire-fighting equipment, despite numerous requests, sent its forces to the site with an hour and a half delay. Meanwhile, the naval bases of the army and the Khorramshahr Port and Maritime Administration were asked to help put out the fire, but they all arrived very late. Therefore, after 3 hours the flames were extinguished at 1 am.
The day after the incident, the Shah’s regime tried to put the responsibility for this horrific crime on the shoulder of combatant Muslim groups and announced through the public media that the saboteurs (a title by which the SAVAK described the combatant groups) have caused such an incident. In addition, some foreign-affiliated media tried to show groups known as Islamic Marxists as the perpetrators of such a crime whereas this claim could not even be attributed to the groups and currents that set the cinemas on fire, because:
1) There should be interests in doing anything, but this incident had no benefit for the perpetrators and even raised anger among the people against the perpetrators.
2) The cinema halls were all set ablaze in the middle of the night when no one was inside.
3) Cinemas in which immoral films were screened would usually be set ablaze in objection to the regime’s cultural policies, while the film “The Deer,” one of the works of the famous Iranian director Masoud Kimiaei, took a critical look at the cultural and social conditions of the society that day. This film, which people knew that parts of it had been censored, contained political issues, and in general, it was not among the vulgar and immoral works of what was called the Persian film’s cinema. The fighters, on the other hand, never took any action that would cause occasional and mass killings of the people.
Accordingly, none of the opposition movements supported taking such barbaric actions. Immediately after the incident, Imam Khomeyni issued a statement from the city of Najaf and condemned the crime while exposing the regime’s role in it. He stated: “I do not think any Muslim and even any human being, could commit such a barbaric crime, except those who have made a habit of committing such crimes. Their disposition to such savagery and brutality has taken them outside the pale of humanity.”
Other clerics and maraji’ (sources of emulation) also issued statements condemning the crime. Moreover, scholars and students of the seminary of Qom and clerics of Tehran and even some Muslim and armed combatant groups issued announcements condemning the incident. People also quickly pointed the finger at the regime since they realized that the opposition groups are not the preparators of the crime. Since then, the city of Abadan has become a center of opposition to the regime with the widespread activity of religious forces, so much so that on August 21, 1978, hundreds of people marched across the city while mourning for the victims and chanting slogans against the Pahlavi regime. They gathered in front of the Rastakhiz Party of the People of Iran office and sought to destroy the building which led to clashes with security and law enforcement forces.
But this was not the end of the people’s anger; Every day, rallies were held in different departments and centers of the city and various slogans were chanted against the regime. The governing body declared martial law in Abadan to contain the crisis in the city, but again it failed. In such circumstances, Brigadier Reza Razmi, the then head of the Abadan Shahrbani, fled the city to save his life. on January 9, 1978, when the Qom uprising took place Razmi, who was at the time a colonel and the head of Shahrbani, suppressed the people’s uprising in the city. After the incident, he was sent to Abadan and got promoted. Being aware of his role in suppressing the people, he fled Iran shortly after the incident of Cinema Rex to avoid facing the revolutionary anger of the people.
But the wave of protests caused by this horrific crime spread throughout the country, such that thousands of the people of Mashhad expressed their anger and hatred. In many cities, mourning and commemoration ceremonies for the martyrs were held spontaneously every day, and clerics condemned the incident in their speeches.
The regime, which witnessed the growing wave of popular opposition, assigned a delegation to investigate the causes of the incident. Several members of the National Assembly also called for the impeachment of Jamshid Amouzgar, the prime minister, to show that they intend to defend the rights of the people, but Amouzgar resigned before the process of impeachment begins to decrease the protests.
It is worth mentioning that, compared to other revolutions and social uprisings, the Islamic Revolution and the struggles of the Iranian people were less violent, and the ruling regime tried to divert the people’s movement and incited the public opinion against the revolutionary movement by creating divisions and discords among the revolutionary forces. Furthermore, this strategy would create a wave of public fear and intimidation among the people, causing them to feel despair and frustration concerning pursuing their demands.
The Shah, who has always tried to remind the people of his return to power since the coup d’état of August 19, 1953, tried to make people believe that the opposition groups are dangerous. The day before the incident, he addressed the people: “We promise you a great civilization whereas others promise you a great horror.” These remarks show that the fire at the Cinema Rex in Abadan must be an example of that great horror; These statements were repeatedly broadcast over the media in the days following the incident.
Although the evidence suggests that the Shah’s regime was involved in the crime, it must be acknowledged that the incident may have been orchestrated by the CIA and Mossad agents who served as advisers to Iran’s security services. Because examples of such plots can be seen in some countries, including among Palestinian groups, all of which have been in favour of the hegemonic powers.
A few days after the incident, the regime claimed that Hashem Abdorreza Ashour the perpetrator of the crime has been arrested while he was trying to leave the country. There were also reports that other perpetrators of the crime are being prosecuted. But until the victory of the Islamic Revolution, no trial was held for the perpetrators of the incident. After the establishment of the Islamic Republic, in September 1980, the perpetrators of the incident of Cinema Rex faced trial.
According to the indictment of the first-degree defendant, Hoseyn Takbalizadeh: “The evidence and documents obtained show that the fire at the Cinema Rex in Abadan was not accidental or unintentional. Rather, the Pahlavi regime and its agents along with local officials at the time, by hatching a well-calculated plot, intended to divert the revolutionary movement of the Muslim people and tried to take advantage of the incident and weaken the Muslim people and the clergy.”
The charges against 34 defendants were heard in this court. Seven defendants who had fled the country before the victory of the Revolution were convicted in absentia and sentenced to death.
The next defendants were Brigadier-General Ali-Asghar Wadi’i, the then head of the Khuzestan SAVAK, brigadier-general Reza Razmi, the head of the Abadan Shahrbani, and colonel Mohammad-Ali Amini, and the deputy chief of Abadan Shahrbani. After 18 sessions, on September 3, 1979, the court finally sentenced six other defendants to death and the rest were also imprisoned.
Archive of The History of the Islamic Revolution
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