Mouayed Zabtia shoots most scenes for his latest movie in a studio he built at his Tripoli home. For the filmmaker, it is one way to overcome the obstacles he faces in a country where cinema once nearly vanished.

Before a 1969 coup that brought Moamer Kadhafi to power, Libya's capital Tripoli was home to more than 20 movie theatres.

"Today we have none," Zabtia told AFP.

Kadhafi was overthrown and killed in 2011, and though the censorship of his era has declined, its effects are still deeply felt through underinvestment and public disinterest.

"You have to go abroad to see films in a movie theatre," said Mohammed Rizk, an actor in Zabtia's current project, which is set in 1980s Libya when a younger generation yearned for freedom under Kadhafi.

Under the longtime ruler, cinema was viewed as a tool of foreign cultural invasion, and only movies aligned with the state were funded and promoted.

Movie theatres were seen as spaces for gatherings that........

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