Joshua Cassar Gaspar tells David Schembri there is more to small-budget films than the story and the scenery – it is part of Malta’s film industry growing pains.

A pair of boxing gloves hangs in the boardroom of Maltafilm’s offices in Swieqi. The office is clean and tidy, a far cry from the state it was in a week before, when the team working on The Maltese Fighter had set up camp at the office.

We’re lucky to have the film fund here... but then it’s up to the people who are creating it to put in their share of sacrifice

Although he looks tough enough to be a boxer himself, Joshua Cassar Gaspar, the producer of The Maltese Fighter, offers coffee instead. In part, the producer looks tough because he, along with screenwriter Monika Maslowska, has taken up boxing to research and get inspired for the film being made.

In essence the short is, the producer says: “a father-son story – it’s about a father’s sacrifice to make sure his son has food on the table.” The son, Giuseppe, aspires to be like his father, Carmelo, a champion amateur boxer, who is also the “victim of circumstances”.

It is set in the 1970s, a time in local boxing where local boxers would fight British commandos who came to shore. “It is never spelt out in the film, but you get the feeling that Carmelo is fighting a commando in one of the scenes,” Cassar Gaspar says.

The stunts in the movie – a requisite if main actor Malcolm Ellul were to keep his nose intact – were coordinated by Steve Abela, the boxing coach at Lord’s Gym, the same gym Cassar Gaspar and Maslowska frequented in the run up to the movie.

This gym was fertile ground not only for inspiration, but for a very important cast member – Nico Fenech, the 10-year-old who plays the son, trains at the same gym, and “he’s sharp”, Cassar Gaspar says.

Another boxing gym – Bertu’s – provided an authentic boxing ring of the time, which was set up in an unused factory. “That was a nightmare to set up,” the producer recalled.

Despite being aimed at an international audience, the film’s dialogue is in Maltese, and the actors cast by local TV production company Take 2 are all Maltese.

“Very often, Maltese actors involved in foreign productions end up with small, secondary roles, and it will be good to see them shine in this film,” the producer said.

While the island was generous with light, locations and casting, when it came to the director, the producers cast their nets far from Maltese shores – to Canada, where Arev Manoukian is based.

Manoukian had made a splash in the movie world with his 2009 short film Nuit Blanche, which had won him many awards. His distinct visual style is what attracted the Maltese team to approach him, and Cassar Gaspar makes it sound as if it were simple.

“When we put the idea together we said ‘we need a really good director who has amazing visuals’, and when we saw Nuit Blanche we said ‘OK, this is the guy’. We got in touch with his producer, Carlo Trulli, from Spyfilms and they were both very pleased to be part of it.”

Manoukian accepted, and Trulli came on board as co-producer. Cassar Gaspar, however, shrugs off any suggestion that the pair might have come on board because this would be a Mediterranean holiday for them both. In actual fact, they did not have much time for sightseeing.

“The thing is that Malta is known to be very cinematic, it has a very cinematic reputation. So if you have a director who is very visual and who has the opportunity of creating something in Malta, about Malta, I think that was what made them say OK, great, let’s create something here,” the producer surmises.

The rest of the crew is a mix of local and international talent, all of whom signed up for the film as a labour of love – in fact, no one is being paid and all of the €12,000 the Malta Film Fund provided is being spent to make the film look the best it can and make an impact on the international stage.

The producer believes that in a short film such as this, which is made for its own sake and not for any commercial gain, there are sacrifices to be made if the result is to be any good.

“We’re lucky to have the film fund here, which is doing its part to ignite the movie scene, but then it’s up to the people who are creating it to put in their share of sacrifice,” Cassar Gaspar says.

The film was also supported by Moviepeople, an Italian movie equipment rental company, which provided the camera and the vintage lenses to soften the often-harsh look of digital film – it helps, of course, that Cassar Gaspar heads the Maltese branch of the company.

At the time of writing, the film is in post-production (which is happening in Canada, where Spy- films is based), and there is no confirmation on where the film will premiere.

Ultimately, the film’s makers hope that the end result will punch above its weight and provide an injection of confidence into the fledgling Maltese film industry.

“Malta’s film industry is still starting – it’s well known for its service industry for foreign productions, but local film is still in its infancy, and we understand that.”

The quantum leap from small-budget shorts to fully-funded feature films won’t happen overnight, but there is progress, the producer believes:

“Even people who aren’t in the industry are noticing that something’s happening.”