Counting down to the EFAs | Caesar Must Die

Country: Italy

Director: Paolo Taviani

Screenwriters: Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani

Starring: Giovanni Arcuri, Salvatore Striano, Cosimo Rega, Antonio Frasca and Fabio Cavalli

NOMINATED FOR: Best Film, Director, Editor (Roberto Perpignani)

The narrative motor behind the Taviani brothers' high-concept docu-drama is not alien to Maltese audiences.

Being a film about a group of inmates performing William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar as part of a rehabilitation programme, it recalls a recent initiative - When You Hear My Voice - coming to fruition at St James Cavalier last February, where young inmates were encouraged to express themselves through assorted works by Shakespeare and others, crash-coursing their way through acting with the help of a dedicated director.

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When it finally played to an expectant audience at St James Cavalier, When You Hear My Voice was exhilarating, in large part because you were experiencing a transformative experience for these young men in 'real time'.

Sadly, the Tavianis's film can't transmit the same dramatic power. Because while the cast here is also made up of real inmates - ranging from drug traffickers to mafia members and even murderers - they are essentially acting out a prefabricated story - even if it is complicated by its play-within-a-film structure - and the contrived conflict that spurts up on occasion is far too clunky to leave any impression.

Though it remains a largely unremarkable piece of cinema - its stellar performance at this year's Berlin Film Festival was greeted with much head-scratching by critics - it does come with moments of real humanity (if not spontaneity). Encouraged to speak in their various regional dialects, the prisoners turn out to be charming characters - from the little we learn of them in the film - and if they don't necessarily manage to put together a satisfying story, the Tavianis certainly succeed in depicting the prisoners as full-bodied human beings.

Extra credit goes to inmate-turned-actor Salvatore Striano. Charged with playing the conflicted role of archetypal political assassin Brutus, Striano - pardoned in 2006, he has also appeared in the high-profile gritty mafia expose Gomorrah - evokes fear and pity as he rolls Shakespeare's beautifully pained language in evocative Neapolitan.

Keep checking maltatoday.com.mt and MaltaToday Midweek and Sunday for more on the European Film Awards. You can also listen to our podcast on the Awards by clicking here.