More than Movies: Cinema Petra in Amman During the Mandatory Period

Abstract

The movie theater can be considered as one of various modernizing forces that dramatically transformed Middle Eastern societies in the 20th century. Cinema Petra was the biggest and most important movie theatre in Transjordan throughout the 1930s and 1940s and had a multi-purpose function. It did not only screen movies but also served as a place of cultural communication and space for interaction. It was a major place of public gathering and entertainment during the 1930s and early 1940s and became part of the public space needed by Amman's urban elite for their cultural and political activities. Thus the cinema contributed to the emergence of a critical public sphere in the growing young Transjordanian capital.