As Adormidera premieres on local screens, David Schembri discusses making an epic movie on a micro budget with lead actor Andrei Claude.

The poster for the film.

Malta is no shrinking violet in the epic genre – Gladiator, Alexander and Troy have all been shot in Malta, and more recently, HBO’s series Game of Thrones has brought out the more picturesque parts of our archipelago to the international spotlight. With all this raw material at hand, it might perhaps surprise an outsider that Malta is not a hotbed for films set in a time where horses, armour and bloody battles were all the rage.

What the four productions have in common, apart from their having been shot – at least partly – within our shores, is a bevy of seasoned creatives, cast and crew and budgets the size of a developing country’s GDP. These are hardly common fare in Malta, and the local crews who worked on those productions typically shy away from a genre that requires a substantial amount of investment from the get-go.

However, this has not put the makers of Adormidera off the challenge. Having photographed some re-enactors in Mdina, Ray Mizzi set about making Adormidera, which at the time was conceived as a short. With London-based actor Andrei Claude on board, however, the film grew into a feature-length affair. In the movie, Claude plays Tristan.

“Tristan of León, as the last name implies, is originally from Spain. He was born into a bloodline of warriors, and is therefore destined to follow in his father’s footsteps,” Claude says.

“In this story, Tristan is an army general, and together with his men has travelled up north in an attempt to protect their land against invaders. Only four of his men survive, and as they journey back home he begins to learn that there could be an alternative to what he believes is his destiny. However, the woman he lays his eyes on turns out to be the wrong one, in many ways.”

Adormidera, as it turns out, is the Spanish word for the poppy. “Although I obviously can’t give too much away, I can tell you this little red flower has a rather important role in the story,” Claude says.

What also played an important part in the story was flight tickets – because many actors in the cast were not on the project full-time, the main actor found himself flying in every time there was shooting to be done.

“We began shooting in November 2012 and, with the exception of a few inserts that were shot later, we wrapped up in May 2013. The reason it took so long to shoot, in comparison to what one would expect, which is around eight to twelve weeks, is because our filming schedule had to be based on people’s availability.

“It would have been a lot more convenient for me if we had shot consistently for two or three months, since I had to travel from London to Malta for each day of filming.”

Apart from the inconvenience brought about by the frequent travel, Claude believes the intermittent nature of shooting got in the way on preparation.

“I feel we were very often tight on time, and that didn’t allow for much preparation. So usually I would have to walk on set in character, in order not to break the mould. I developed a ‘Tristan intuition’, so I could think as the character rather than for the character, and that helped me remain consistent without being predictable,” Claude says.

The main actor certainly seems to have got on with director Mizzi. Apart from admiring his short film The Medic, which had won Mizzi the Best Directorial Debut of a Short Film award at the ITN Distribution Film Festival in 2011, Claude reports Mizzi was “certainly one of the easiest” directors he’s worked with. “He was very open to my ideas on the character and story.”

Claude’s investment in the film went beyond staying in character when he wasn’t being filmed. The production, having skyrocketed from a 25-minute short to a 90-minute feature film, encountered financial difficulties towards February 2013.

“During that time, I casually met up with a good friend of mine, Christian Ellul, and we talked about this situation. He immediately expressed an interest in helping out,” Claude says.

I could think as the character rather than for the character

Ellul and his business partner Karl Schranz eventually agreed to provide “the funding to finish the project and the expertise necessary to maximise its potential.”

“I was not prepared to waste all the time and travel expenses I had already invested in this production, by not even seeing it complete. So I immediately forwarded their proposal to the director and, after a few meetings they came to an agreement to fund the production until completion, with a large focus on the marketing of the film,” Claude says. As a result of this agreement, Great Siege Productions Ltd was set up, with Claude himself as a director, in order to have a legal entity to acquire all the rights to the film.

“As one of the company directors I tried to take on a more active role. Both Christian and Karl run an extremely busy schedule, and it would be impossible for them to oversee the entire production process,” the actor-turned-company director says.

Apart from featuring familiar local actors such as Henry Zammit Cordina and Audrey Harrison, Adormidera sees another familiar local face – and voice – hit the silver screen. The film’s trailer already featured tenor Joseph Calleja playing a cameo role, and the singer has since confirmed that he does sing in the film.

As hinted earlier, ‘epic’ and ‘budgets’ are not likely bedfellows in film, and Claude, while cagey on the actual amount the film cost, says: “Let’s put it this way, in Hollywood it would be referred to as a micro budget, if that.”

The film-makers were lucky in that they had the support and participation of two local re-enactment troupes – Anakron and Show of Arms ­– who, apart from their dedication to recreating the chivalric tradition, brought along their well-stocked wardrobes.

“Thanks to the Malta Film Commission, namely Peter Busuttil and Susan Ronald, we used of several props from productions such as Agora, Troy and Julius Caesar, which had been left on the island. When we could not find exactly what we needed, our talented set designer, Kevin Mallia, would have them made,” Claude says.

“We had some lovely horses on set, including three beautiful Friesians thanks to Charles Polidano, who gave us his support, as well as to the helpful horse handlers, Gina Curmi, Joseph Grech and Katrina Henderson.

“With the contribution of many people, including the cast and crew, I believe we managed to attain a level of quality which could only be achieved with a much larger budget.”

Adormidera is now showing at the Eden Cinemas, St Julian’s.