Maltese to his soul

The controversial character of movie director Mario Azzopardi oozes out of every pore over a coffee at the InterContinental Malta. There's a political animal lurking inside him, which he expresses through his art.

He talks more politics, on anything from apathetic university students and their undeserved stipends to his search for faith, than movies and plays, and does not mince his words when it comes to American foreign policy... These are things that fire him up.

"My kind of writing tends to be socio-political satire; very hard-hitting and tending towards the bizarre. I tend to gravitate towards the fantastic... Science-fiction is such a challenge, both intellectually and philosophically," he says, admitting that he has found more success in direction.

With titles like Unfinished Tales Of Mayhem And Anarchy, a movie he intends to produce, and Ix-Xitan Kunjomu Malti, a play he is writing in Maltese and plans to present in two years' time, it's clear what makes Mr Azzopardi tick.

In Malta to launch the revival of his 1970s movie Gagga, created in his university days, as part of the European Film Festival, and to secure financing for an upcoming movie, his nostalgia for his native land and the way it was is almost tangible.

At 56, and having lived half his life in Canada, Mr Azzopardi's ties with his roots are pulling at his heart.

"The need to be with childhood friends is strong, as is the nostalgia I have for this imbierka island that has so much potential. I feel I need to come and shake it," he gesticulates vigorously, as though he is strangling someone with a passion.

"Come on! Don't you realise what you have? Wake up, go, move!"

He pauses: "All this sounds so presumptuous; it's just that I think our culture has lots to offer. How the present generation is not caring about it is too sad. They are spoiled rotten and so arrogant not to realise what other generations have undergone for them to have what they have!"

Mr Azzopardi is proud to be a descendent of Mikiel Anton Vassalli, who he maintains was one of Malta's greatest revolutionaries. "I guess I inherited his gene of being a pixxikalda.

"I'm constantly worrying about everything; worrying inspires me and my inspiration worries me...

"I learnt from the Jesuits when I was a student in Malta never to take anything for granted and always ask why. It's a very Jesuit mantra, which was inculcated in me as a young man."

In line with his patriotic streak, Mr Azzopardi slips into his native tongue: "To tell you the truth, I've started writing in Maltese."

With such a strong pull to his homeland, it is not surprising that he is experiencing some sort of a comeback - not only through the screening of his revamped movie Gagga, but also the staging of his play Sulari Fuq Strada Stretta, 35 years after the Manoel Theatre banned it because of its religious, political and sociological connotations, and the fact that it was replete with bad words and offensive situations.

In a nutshell, "it's about frustration at the fact that the situation in Malta could have been better..."

The fact that it is now being produced by the Manoel Theatre speaks volumes of "the wisdom of its management, who, I understand, are doing their best to revive a sense of Maltese theatre.

"Music, poetry, painting and sculpture are healthy in Malta, but I would put a question mark on theatre because there are few original Maltese plays. The theatre that talks directly to the Maltese soul about the Maltese soul is non-existent. While the Manoel is on the lookout for Maltese stuff, this is not always successful. It is very sad!"

It is the public's sacrosanct duty to support Maltese art and effort, irrespective of whether it is of international standards, he insists.

And there are other Malta-related plans in the pipeline... While Mr Azzopardi is back next December to direct his play, he is conducting a course in scriptwriting, and intends to shoot a movie in 2008 in co-production between Canada and Malta.

It is based on the true story of Buzz Beurling, a 21-year-old Canadian pilot, who was posted to Malta during World War II and downed 29 planes in 14 days.

"He was an individualist and hated authority, but was a champion," he describes, highlighting a slight autobiographical touch.

Mr Azzopardi has also written a script, The Kids On Last Street, based on a story that unfolds in the Mandragg, which he would like to shoot in Malta eventually.

And then there's the Malta Film Fund that he had tried to set up for years and cannot go without mentioning. In fact, despite the obstacles, he has not given up.

"I think we have found a formula through EU funding, which Malta has never accessed and which would grant less than one-third of the budget for the Malta-Canada co-production."

But Mr Azzopardi is optimistic that he can get the rest of the financing from Canada and find some investment in Malta. The idea would be to have a $2 million revolving fund, which is a "pittance", he says. "It's a dream I've had for so many years now. We need some movement from the local investment community; we need to find that spark."

Malta Spitfire - the working title for the Buzz Beurling movie - would be the first experiment. With a budget of $10 million, the risk would be minimal, Mr Azzopardi maintains. "We're not spending $60 million, which is the normal price of a movie."

For the first time in Maltese history, a cinema is showing two local movies, and Mr Azzopardi is elated, quoting the example of the Serbian film, No Man's Land, shot for less than $2 million, but winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Film and raking in the profits.

There is a market for Maltese movies if done in co-production, and there are many ways of going about that, he believes.

Meanwhile, he won't be twiddling his toes. When he gets back to Canada on Monday, he starts preparing for a new TV miniseries he has created, ZOS - Zone Of Separation, based on the war in Bosnia and featuring the clash between Islam and Christianity.

Destined for the international market, the most exciting aspect of the project is the lack of an American studio behind it, which means he is much freer... So much so that the "evil element in the show is the Bush foreign policy, which I can express as I please - as a fascist, extreme right wing axis of evil, composed of Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Bush.

"American TV is myopic, particularly where political controversy is concerned. American audiences are not easily attracted to controversy."

Cinema does not have to be only about James Bond, he says. "It is such a powerful medium - perhaps the most powerful. It informs, exhilarates, changes attitudes..."