When the Kuwait National Museum opens its new $7 million planetarium in a few years, to replace one looted and burned by Iraqi invaders in 1991, the science complex will offer visitors what may be the only giant-screen IMAX theater between Paris and Singapore.
The first movie shown in the theater of the new complex may be "Fires of Kuwait," said planetarium director Mohamed B. Al-Qatami, who saw the movie for the first time yesterday during a visit to the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore.
Mr. Al-Qatami was at the center as part of preparations by the Kuwaiti government to construct the science complex. He compared notes and consulted with Jim O'Leary, director of the Davis Planetarium, which produces planetarium star shows for sale around the world.
At the conclusion of "Fires of Kuwait," Mr. Al-Qatami applauded. The powerful 1992 documentary shows the international efforts to extinguish 700 oil well fires ignited by the departing Iraqis. "Good!" he said. "A great picture for a big disaster. Our people will be very impressed. It is part of our history."
The 40-minute film shows the hellish, roaring oil fires, the dense, oily overcast they threw over much of Kuwait, and the terrifying, but ultimately successful tactics employed by the fire-fighting teams. The IMAX format envelops viewers in a high-quality picture on a five-story screen, and chest-thumping stereo sound.
"We in Kuwait should be the first [in the region] to show 'Fires of Kuwait,' " Mr. Al-Qatami said. "After all, we are the victims of the fires of Kuwait."
Mr. Qatami said he was driving to the planetarium in Kuwait City on the August morning the Iraqis invaded. When he arrived, he was challenged, shot at and arrested by Iraqi troops. He was later released and fled through the desert to Saudi Arabia, eventually joining his wife and three children in the United States.
When he returned after the war, the oil field fires were still burning, the National Museum had been looted of its Islamic art treasures, and the planetarium, built in 1985, was in ruins.
Telescopes, ancient astronomy and navigation instruments, star maps and even the star theater's 126 seats had been stolen. What was left, including the Zeiss Spacemaster projector, its control panel, sound mixers and tape recorders, had been burned.
"The heat inside the inner dome was so intense it practically melted the all-aluminum screen," Mr. Al-Qatami said.
Plans were under way by 1993 to repair and reopen the planetarium when a remark by former President George Bush abruptly aborted the project.
Mr. Al-Qatami said Mr. Bush was touring the ruined planetarium and the looted museum during his triumphal visit to the Persian Gulf nation. At one point, Mr. Bush mentioned to Sheik Saud al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti information minister, that the planetarium's burned-out shell would make a good war memorial.
The sheik agreed. The repairs were canceled.
"He is our hero," Mr. Al-Qatami explained. Mr. Bush is revered in Kuwait for leading the international coalition that liberated the country.
Now there are two new planetariums in the works for Kuwait. In addition to the National Museum's planned facility, the Kuwait Science Club is nearing completion of its own planetarium and observatory. Its director, Fuad Aljomaa, accompanied Mr. Al-Qatami yesterday.