TEHRAN -- Home cinemas, weak screenplays and the low cultural budget are the main causes of cinemas' decline, said a member of the Cultural Commission of the Majlis Fatemeh Rake'i.

"The shaky financial situation of most people and a lack of suitable facilities for passing leisure time lead people to home cinemas," she added.

In spite of the technological advances and their popularity in developed countries, cinema has still occupies a special place among the people, she continued. She called a lack of proper theaters as the main reasons of decline in the cinema industry and underlined that most of Tehran's cinemas were built more than 40 years ago and are now, "almost dilapidated."

"Tehran being the cultural center of the country should have as least three proper theaters to be able to fulfill the minimum needs of society and hold international festivals as well," Rake'i continued.

She said she considers Tehran's theater halls "not functional," and added that in order to encourage people to go to cinema, these should be thoroughly refurbished and vastly improved.

She further pointed to Vahdat Hall as not being suitable for holding international festivals. Rake'i said she believed, "powerful screenplays the key to making good films," adding that, "we have had award winning films at numerous international festivals and the country's filmmakers have succeeded to present part of our national culture to the world."

She underlined that the films that have social themes as well as being innovative are more warmly welcomed in the society. Pointing to the lack of a standard frame in the field of screenplay writing in the country she said "we try to present red lines for the writers by organizing a delegation consisting of experts and intellectuals."

She added that the standard frames would help the cinema industry determining the film's appropriateness from the first stages and before spending money on the film production.