Malta’s film industry needs to prove itself | Martin Bonnici

Your film adaptation of Alex Vella Gera’s novel ‘Is-Sriep Regghu Saru Velenuzi’ – or to give its English title, ‘The Viper’s Pit’ – hits cinemas next month. Out of curiosity: why did you choose to adapt this novel, of all available options, to the medium of film?

First of all, it was one of the first contemporary works of fiction that I read which deals with local politics: and in particular, a side to local politics that we don’t often talk about very much…

The 1980s, you mean…

Yes. Because the film itself is divided into two segments: one set in the eighties, and the other in 2012.

But at the same time, it is not a story ‘about politics’. At its core, ‘Sriep’ is simply a story about a father and son. There’s a thriller element to it, yes; there is also family drama element…. but at the end of the day, all the projects that I work on deal with human relationships. How people relate to one another.

And I saw a lot of potential, in using this father-and-son duo to explore the political and social realities of Malta: especially in that area between the 1980s and the Noughties.

I like to joke that – even if it’s not a ‘joke’ really; it’s a sad truth – that in our educational curriculum, history teaches us about 4,000 years of colonisation… but then, once Malta got independence: the only things we are taught is that Malta became a Republic; then we joined the EU. It’s as though nothing else happened, between 1964 and today…

That was what gave me the drive to really push for this to happen. I thought it was a great project, which can be entertaining – because part of my job is to entertain people… but also, to engage people, and get them to talk. And I do think we need to talk more, about our recent past….

There is, however, a reason why the 1980s is such a difficult era to discuss. The character of Dom Mintoff, for instance – and the plot of ‘Sriep’ involves a fictitious ‘Mintoff assassination plot’ – still divides public opinion to this day. How does your film confront this divisive legacy?

At this level, we followed the book quite closely; and the main characters are from a well-off family in Sliema, who are obviously aligned with the Nationalist Party.

In the 1980s segment, we follow [main character] Richard Zammit Petri, as he is indoctrinated into this ‘cult-like’ group, and persuaded to ‘go and kill Mintoff’. So we see him turn from a loving husband and father, into… a ‘scared soldier’, basically. Someone who’s never sure of what’s happening.

But we never see him, except in the company of these people who are obsessing about how ‘evil’ Mintoff is… and who also keep saying that, ‘once the Nationalists are in power, life is going to be great’.

Then, however, we introduced this scene… and interestingly enough: first, [screenwriter] Teodor Reljic expected me to discard it; and later, the editor told me to get rid of it… but I fought to keep it in the final film.

Anyway: in this scene, Zammit Petri meets a dockyard worker, who gives him a completely different perspective on who Mintoff was. He says, ‘Listen: I am not a genius; I am not a political expert; but what I do know is that, thanks to Mintoff, I have a steady job… I have a home… and my children can even go to university….”

So, to cut a long story short: the film does not pass any judgment on the era. In fact, it’s not really ‘about Mintoff’ at all: the most you see of him is a shadow in a window, at one point. It’s really about how these people acted, at the time; and the weight that their actions put on future generations…

Nonetheless, people today are still possessive about their own perspectives of the 1980s, and all that decade represents. We saw this recently, with the controversy surrounding Mark Montebello’s latest Mintoff biography. Are you concerned that this may affect audience reactions?

Well... we are talking about Malta; and the way Maltese people treat politics is what it is, at the end of the day. So I’m quite sure that there will be people, from both sides of the divide, who will come out of the cinema screaming bloody murder, or calling the film ‘obscene’.

One of the jokes we had on set, in fact, was that: hardcore Nationalists would come out saying, ‘See? The situation under Mintoff was so bad, that this is the sort of thing our fathers were forced to resort to…’ Hardcore Labourites, on the other hand, would say: ‘See? This is what those bastard Nationalists were really up to all along!’ It is, I suppose, inevitable…

But that is partly what I meant by the lack of historical consensus. For instance, there are still people (obviously, of Labour persuasion) who firmly believe that a lot of the violence we associate with the 1980s was actually down to Nationalist agent-provocateurs… including the 1986 murder of Raymond Caruana…

[Nodding] I’ve even heard people say, with my own ears, that they are sure he [Caruana] ‘shot himself by mistake’. And that the bullet-hole in the door was planted afterwards…

Even without those conspiracy theories, however: it is a historical fact that – before the police, or anyone else, arrived at the scene – the Nationalist party officials had a good half-an-hour, to an hour, alone there. That photo of Eddie Fenech Adami, and Guido Demarco, standing by the dead body… I find it obscene that they turned the incident into a photo-shoot. And it goes to show that, for them, it was all about the headlines, really…

And I’ve even met people who were part of the Gakketta Blu, who told me: ‘Oh God: the number of times I’ve beaten up Nationalist supporters – or planted a bomb – on orders from the party? We’ve done that…’

But this, too, is one of the things that drove me to make this film. There is so much, that happened in the 1980s, that we don’t talk about at all… or even know about. And I think that, for Malta to grow up as a country, we really do need to be much more open about this.

I’m not saying, naturally, that ‘all the 1980s violence was led by the PN’. Not at all. But I do think that we were close to a civil war, at the time. There were acts of violence on both sides… and curiously, even when the administration changed [in 1987]: no one was prosecuted over it. Nothing was actually done.

And that is part of the problem. To be honest, I don’t think it was done just to ‘keep the peace’. Both sides had an interest in keeping the full story from coming out.

Would you say that, by now, enough time has elapsed, by now, to be able to take a more dispassionate look at our recent political past?

Well, part of the problem with Maltese politics is that… let me try and put it this way. Recently, I commented about the news that Christian Peregin had moved from Lovin Malta to the PN.

Now: at the moment, I don’t consider the PN to be a party that I can vote for, myself… because of its policies, its ideology, and the people involved. But Peregin keeps saying: ‘Stop talking about the people who need to leave. We need to help the party….’

Sorry, but my answer to that is: ‘Helping the party also means accepting the fuck-ups that were done by that party. We first need to acknowledge those fuck-ups... even if it means putting former leaders in a bad light’.

But is the Nationalist Party willing to do that? Is Labour willing to do it, for that matter?

Because that is what we really need to do. We can’t keep placing our forefathers on pedestals. We need to stop saying they were perfect, and admit that our forefathers also fucked up. On both sides of the political divide, we need to admit that. Mintoff, Fenech Adami, Borg Olivier… they all did good things, don’t get me wrong. But they all fucked up, too. On so many levels...

‘Sriep’ is also part of a national drive to build up a local film industry: and by that, I mean an industry that actually produces local films (as opposed to servicing foreign productions, which already exists in Malta). As we all know, however, there are teething problems. Can you give us an indication of what it’s actually like to be working in the industry today? And what those problems are?

Oh, it’s a bit of everything really: exciting, frustrating, exhilarating, depressing… a little scary, sometimes… but to give you a rough idea: around 10 years ago, the Cultural Directorate, in collaboration with the Film Commissioner, had organised a training course for film professionals. The course itself was quite intensive: they brought down some pretty amazing people to teach us – including the editor of Screen International, for example – and it was working very well, until [new Film Commissioner] Peter Busuttil came in, and basically destroyed it.

But most of the visiting lecturers – and they were all highly accomplished film-makers –  told us roughly the same thing: “We’re not getting paid as much as usual to come here… but how often do you get a chance to be involved at the very beginning of a national film industry?”

And it’s true. It really is quite cool, ultimately, to be part of the birth of Maltese film…

On the flipside, however: whenever I go to film festivals abroad, or attend a course, I am always asked: ‘Name a Maltese filmmaker you look up to’. And… well… I can’t. There aren’t any. And we are now in 2021. I mean: it’s ridiculous…

On top of that, there’s also the added pressure. Let’s face it:  if we screw up – as Malta’s first generation of filmmakers – it might set the industry back another 50 years, easy. So we need to prove ourselves. We need to work on this framework, and deliver something…

What would you say is holding the industry back?

Well: as you mentioned earlier we have had a film servicing industry for many, many years; but our indigenous film industry only really started around 12 years ago. Before that, there was only a hobbyist approach to making films.

And that is part of the problem. Personally, I think that Elio Lombardi winning the Ġieħ Ir-Repubblika was a slap in the face of everyone else working in the film industry. Because he’s just a dilettante, running around with a TV camera, shooting with his friends… and if you watch his films: it’s very clear that he has absolutely no clue what he’s doing.

And what, he wins the National Order of Merit Award... because he made 90 films that are actually just un-watchable trash? It’s insane. And it’s also insulting, to everyone else involved.

Meanwhile, in the same year, Rebecca Cremona won the same award for only one film: ‘Simshar’. Now: I won’t put her in the same category as Lombardi, but… the National Order of Merit, for having made only one film? I mean, come on… let her at least have a career, before deciding to give her the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award…

But the point is: must we really celebrate each and every, tiny little step we take? It’s a little embarrassing… and it doesn’t help the industry, either…

What about funding? ‘Sriep’ itself is partly financed by the National Book Council’s Film Adaptation Fund. The Malta Film fund also offers €120,000 a year. But… is that enough to make a quality film? And doesn’t the lack of serious funding condemn us to precisely the sort of ‘dilettantism’ you complain about?

No, it doesn’t. It really, really doesn’t. Because money is not as big an issue as people out there make it out to be. So many good films, which do very well internationally, with made for only €50 to €100,000. So, so many…

Because a ‘good film’ doesn’t have to be a big-budget blockbuster. And there are enough funds available, to create quality films. What we do have, however, is a problem with the way those funds are administered, and evaluated; and there is also a general lack of maturity among the Maltese filmmaking community.

This is, in fact, it is one of the negative effects of having had only a film-servicing industry for so long... and even then, servicing primarily Hollywood productions. It has given some people a very narrow view of what filmmaking actually is.

I have heard wannabe producers say – because they’ve only ever worked in the servicing industry – that: ‘You can’t make a film for less than €3 million’…

I’ve heard that myself as, it happens…

Well, whoever told you that is a complete fucking idiot. Those people don’t ‘know film’; they ‘know Hollywood’. And that is very, very different.

The reality is that 80% of all European films are made for less than €100,000. Now: having more funding will obviously help… but if we cannot put a good product out there, at a cost of between €100 and €200,000… then we won’t be able to it with millions, either. It doesn’t make any difference, because… it’s not about the money.

With more money, we will only make fancier, more expensive, shit films. But ‘shit films’ is what they will remain.

Because let’s face it: Malta hasn’t produced a good film yet; and it’s not for lack of money.