Pandora Theatre

In the village of Zejtun, close to the town of Fgura in the South Eastern region of Malta, in 1964, the committee of the Zejtun Band Club was able to purchase the garden behind their club thanks to the generosity of their president, Serafin Xuereb, who lent them the money to build a combined theatre and cinema.

The Pandora Theatre, which, in the event, was to be predominantly used as a cinema, opened on 1st October 1955 with the 1951 release “Pandora and The Flying Dutchman”, starring James Mason and Ava Gardner. It is assumed that it was named after this film.

The cinema is situated in a narrow alley off Bon Kunsill, opposite its junction with Kostituzzjoni.

The Pandora Theatre closed on 1st May 1983, the final film being “The Greatest Battle” (which might be the 1978 Italian war film, “il grande attacco”, starring Helmut Berger and Samantha Eggar).

The building was leased out and used as a warehouse for many years, but more recently it was taken back by the owners and has been re-opened to the public for bingo, coffee mornings and other social activities.

All this time, the projection box lay untouched and unused. Then, in the summer of 2018, while talking to a former fellow projectionist, Joseph Gafa, who lives in nearby Fgura, found out about this ‘hidden gem’. With a liberal dose of anti-rust spray, they opened the projection box door - to find all the equipment still in place! It was as if the projectionist had just popped out, albeit many years ago.

Eventually, over the weekend of 29th to 30th September 2018, the public were invited to visit this former cinema, which still has some of its original seats in situ. There was great public interest, and the owners had commissioned a short documentary about the cinema, which was shown on the original screen, which just about held up, despite it being rather moth-eaten by now!

This is a wonderful addition to Malta’s cinema history.

My thanks to Joseph Gafa for this information and the photographs.

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