The sticky keys

Stalking - or at least being pestered by friend and foe alike - is something familiar to most media people, as well as many others.

Recently, an acquaintance sent me a link to a place where you can find out a lot about someone. If you are willing to pay good money, you can find out even more - including details that do not appear on the internet.

This topic is tackled extremely well in the short film with the eponymous name, which is co-produced by Angie and Pablo of Where's Everybody, clips from which are showing intermittently on Canale 5. This is the first venture into acting for Nina Moric, the stick-thin star with the voracious appetite.

The story has her being stalked by one - or both? - of a pair of twins, one of whom is a surgeon, and the other a tattooist. Both parts are played by Alessandro Pess. Writer Stefania Grassi has given the serial killer(s) a penchant for designing wings - and that is all I will say.

Most importantly, all the filming was done on location in Malta - at Dar il-Mediterran, Bobby's Tattoo Parlour, Palace Hotel, Ta' Qali Leisure Park, Kennedy Grove, and elsewhere. This is of extreme importance, for should Canale 5 decide to produce a series, or a film, on this premise, all further filming must take place locally.

The film will premiere on Tuesday at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, in the Short Films section. Grassi has already garnered the Gran Premio Speciale Sezione Nuovi Autori, in the sixth edition of the Agave di Cristallo-Città di Lerici Festival.

• I am always fascinated at the amount of interest the Eurovision festival generates, although, personally, I could take it or leave it (preferably the latter).

One Television will once again cater to aficionados. As from Saturday, daily broadcast links will be relayed live from Oslo, following the evening news bulletin. These transmissions, presented by Norman Hamilton, will air up to Finals Night (May 29). Repeats will go out after the 11.15 p.m. news round-up, and the following day at 6.45 a.m. Alfred Zammit's Kalamita will include a live satellite link from Oslo daily.

Bla Agenda on May 31, will be a post-mortem (let's hope that is a bad choice of term) of the festival.

• I sometimes wonder whether there is some kind of sold-xelin roulette wheel at the Broadcasting Authority to enable it to decide which programmes ought to be selected.

Last week, thanks to the BA, most people discovered the existence of a book written by Norman Lowell. Touted as the book that 'changed the world', it actually did nothing of the sort; especially since the ideas therein are considered by most to be unadulterated bunkum.

But even before Rachel Attard was a twinkle in Maltastar's eye, she came under the BA's spotlight because she interviewed Lowell at the place where he and his sycophants meet to talk, every Friday before a full moon (apparently the day is propitious).

Lowell was subsequently the Lone Ranger guest on Bondiplus, but since I have already covered that programme I shall not comment further. However, since the BA has decreed that Bondi had "done wrong" by allowing this racist, sexist person on air, the questions beg themselves.

Is this a free country? If a person wants to make a fool of himself by fomenting his own brand of racial divide and displaying his folly publicly, is he to be stopped from doing so? If the answer is yes... why is he, then, allowed to stand for general elections?

People like me who rarely watch Bondiplus, watched this particular episode for its entertainment value. I never believed a person could be so obtuse while claiming to be the peak of sharpness. But behind the clowning and incitement, I think there was a purpose behind the screening of the interview.

There are still those who always consider Lowell a joke, and marvel at how he stood for MEP elections. He had acquired just under 4,000 votes.

Does this mean that Lowell's insidious points of view are making an inroad into the mentality of the Maltese? Does it mean that, as in the Italian proverb, his party will stand to gain if the electorate is displeased with the two 'quarrellers'?

This topic had already been thrashed to death in Britain, when Ofcom found itself faced with a programme that included secret footage taken inside mosques and (Muslim) organisations. Inevitably, the mailboxes were flooded with 'similar' complaints. Nonetheless, this led to a full-scale investigation.

It was discovered that some of the clips had been edited to emphasise certain teachings, and to accentuate the message that the producers of Undercover Mosque wished to portray. I wonder what Ofcom officers would have done had they watched the clips aimed at Muslim women, produced by other women.

I would say that the ultimate decision hinged, in part, on the qualifier word 'undercover'; it was ruled that this was a documentary, and that the producers did not mean to mislead, or insinuate that bigotry would "incite criminal activity".

Lowell's in-studio interview was not edited in any way. He was allowed to harangue viewers who do not agree with his views, and spout all the drivel he wanted, in between the prepared clips. So it was wise for PBS to allow this to go on air, since as a consequence of this farce, many were brought up short when they stopped to mull over what Lowell was not saying.

television@timesofmalta.com