‘Seytan Bet’ which translates as ‘Devil’s Pit’ was the name given to the first cinema in the country around Churchill road. It garnered the name after attendees to the first few screening attributed the flashing images to the work of the devil in 1923. This century-old establishment has now been changed to a fish restaurant. The first Ethiopian short film was about the coronation of Emperor Zewditu in 1916 despite the first cinematic artefact brought into the country two decades ago. A Frenchman introduced the first cinematic artefacts in Ethiopia in 1898, sold to Italian Minister Federico Ciccodicola who later bestowed them to Emperor Menlik.
