In my student days, lessons in Maltese history had a massive failing. A good chunk of the previous four decades were invariably omitted. These were the Mintoff decades, years that left an indelible mark on the political and social path our country would take.

Judging by what I hear, few are the history teachers that dare delve into the subject. And perhaps until very recently this was understandable. Maybe those years, which were undeniably tumultuous no matter what your political allegiance, were still too close for comfort to be dealt with objectively.

The result is that we have a generation of people who were born after 1985 who have no idea of this aspect of our country's history, save what they hear from family and friends. And which, let's face it, is unlikely to be without personal bias.

Now someone has taken it upon himself to break this self-inflicted omerta. Pierre Ellul's docu-film, Dear Dom, hits cinemas on March 23. I went in for the press viewing not really sure whether resurrecting events that are sure to provoke a strong reaction in viewers was really such a good idea. I left the cinema knowing that, whatever the viewers' personal feelings about the man himself, there could be no greater sin than remaining ignorant about this portion of our history. There is no excuse, any more. For this reason alone, the movie should be made compulsory viewing for all students who are of an age that they should not be sheltered from all that happened in 20th century Malta, the good and the bad.

Ellul's movie takes the form of a personal letter to Mintoff. Throughout the movie, the narrator addresses Mintoff directly and this is a style that makes everything that is happening on screen only too poignant and real. Ellul's production is an intense experience. Those who are expecting outright condemnation of the man will not find it there. Those who are expecting adulation and praise will not find it either.

What they will find is a straightforward portrayal of the political machinations made by a man who allowed nothing to distract him from the goal of creating the Malta he dreamed of. This is achieved through some pretty amazing footage that goes all the way back to before Mintoff had become, so to speak, Mintoff.

Whenever Mintoff is mentioned, we only tend to refer to those years between 1981 and 1987 when things were at their worst. We don't really focus on what led to those years. This is one trap that Dear Dom does not fall into and we actually get a good insight of Mintoff in the years before the power had got to him.

The first half of the movie does a pretty good job in convincing us that Mintoff is a true hero. You view the world through his eyes and you come to see that yes, there was the good along with the bad. And then the tone changes. The triumphant footage of a nation still high on Mintoff's achievements gives way to footage of a nation held in thrall by one man who is ready to justify any action as long as things go his way.

The second half of the movie traces the dark side of the man who truly lived by the Machiavellian credo and who refused to see the wrong in seizing national banks, in making violence part of his electoral manifesto, in isolating Malta from the west, in embracing dictators like Ghaddafi.

The footage in the latter half is disturbing. We see a Mintoff shouting and gesticulating violently during the infamous mass meetings. A Mintoff who is clearly losing the plot. A Mintoff who seems to almost be at the head of a sect, with everyone mindlessly chanting his name. I'm not overdoing it when I say it gave me the shivers. If the footage is disturbing, the interviews are doubly so – but I will leave it at that and not give away too much.

Ellul takes his own stand at the end of the movie – and yet this documentary manages to be as objective and as balanced as humanly possible. The footage, the interviewees from both sides of the divide speak for themselves. And they all speak the truth. As viewers, it is up to us what to make of this truth.

Dear Dom will start showing at the Eden Cinemas on Friday March 23. An in-depth interview with producer, director and writer Pierre Ellul is being carried in tomorrow's issue of The Times TV Guide.