Tapis Ali Allani

Tapis Ali Allani is a carpet shop on Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Kairouan, Tunisia, close to the southern end of the city’s historic medina. The business specialises in the carpets, mergoum and kilim textiles for which Kairouan is particularly known, and the exterior is frequently covered with carpets displayed across the façade and upper level. The premises have changed considerably over the decades. During the 1970s and into 1980, the building housed Café Hassanet, a popular local coffee house. The former café has since been divided into several commercial units, with carpet, shoe and jewellery businesses occupying different parts of the original premises. Its otherwise fairly ordinary appearance hides an important connection to film history, as both the interior and exterior were transformed into one of the best-known locations in the Cairo section of an Indiana Jones film.

Tapis Ali Allani has appeared in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). When filming took place in Kairouan in 1980, the premises were still operating as Café Hassanet. Steven Spielberg’s production dressed the café as the fictional Marhala Bar in Cairo, using both the real interior and exterior. Kairouan itself doubled extensively for 1930s Cairo, with nearby streets, alleys and squares appearing throughout the same section of the film.

In Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Café Hassanet becomes the Marhala Bar, where Indiana Jones retreats after believing that Marion Ravenwood has been killed in the explosion of a truck carrying her through Cairo. Devastated and drinking heavily, Indy sits outside the bar with the capuchin monkey before a German agent approaches and tells him that someone inside wants to speak with him. Indy enters and discovers his archaeological rival René Belloq waiting for him. Belloq attempts to convince Indy that the two men are fundamentally alike, arguing that only a small step separates Indiana’s methods from his own. When Indy finally reaches for his revolver, seemingly prepared to kill Belloq despite the consequences, several apparently uninvolved men around the room suddenly reveal weapons of their own. The confrontation is interrupted when Sallah’s children rush into the bar and surround Indy, allowing him to leave without a gunfight. Sallah meets him outside and takes him away to continue the search for the Ark. Unlike many film interiors that were reconstructed at Elstree Studios, the Marhala Bar sequence was filmed inside the real Café Hassanet as well as immediately outside it. The name “Marhala Bar” was created as part of the film’s set dressing rather than being the actual name of the Tunisian café. Today the former café space has been divided between several businesses, with Tapis Ali Allani occupying part of the location where the sequence was filmed.

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