It took six years, but film-maker Rebecca Cremona is finally setting out to do what she promised when she first started working on Simshar, telling the story that needed to be told. Paula Fleri-Soler meets up with her in the run-up to the film premier.
Almost six years after a fishing boat exploded in open water between Malta and Libya – killing four people and leaving one survivor in the process – Simshar, a fictional film inspired by the events of that fateful day has finally been completed.
For someone who’s spent almost six years developing a kernel of an idea into a 109-minute feature film, director and co-writer Rebecca Cremona is remarkably chipper. Her calm exterior belies the excitement that is clearly building up in anticipation of Simshar’s premiere later this month. Did she imagine this moment would actually become reality?
“When I first met Simon [Bugeja, the sole survivor] in December 2008, I didn’t know what would come of the meeting – I was just exploring an idea,” says Cremona, who at the time was still studying and finish-ing her short film Magdalene in Los Angeles.
When she took Magdalene to the Short Film Corner in Cannes the next May it impressed a French producer so much he enquired about her next project.
“I had around 20 pages of Simshar, just some outlines,” she recalls. The producer loved it and Cremona started some development work with a team of production designers, an editor, a sound designer and a composer.
“We had this pool of extremely dedicated people who were involved from the start,” she says. “We worked hard, each of us finding inspiration for the story wherever we went.”
In the meantime, the script, co-written by Cremona and David Grech, began to take shape, undergoing major changes as world events like the ever-unfolding tragedy of the irregular migrants and the Arab Spring evolved. Yet, notwithstanding that initial burst of activity, that first potential production deal fell through. As did another and another…
The budget was a third of what it should have been
Eventually, the obvious decision was to do it themselves, and with the assistance of the fledgling Malta Film Fund, the financial incentives offered by the Malta Film Commission and invaluable support from many other sources keen to contribute to Malta’s first production of this scale, filming began in November 2012.
“The budget was a third of what it should have been,” says Cremona, considering the bulk of the production dealt with shooting at sea with large boats and explosions.
“This is down to the generosity and team spirit of suppliers, local councils and those participating – especially in post-production, with some leading international companies contributing – as well as thanks to the discipline of the filmmakers and the expert management of the team.
It was this widespread collaboration that enabled the impressive production value to be achieved on what was a low-budget film by international filmmaking standards, especially for such a demanding subject.
“We had to cut corners, certainly, but that pushed us to be more creative,” she readily admits.
What will be going through Cremona’s mind at Simshar’s premiere?
“It’ll be too much to sit and watch with an audience,” she replies, a hint of panic in her voice.
Having taken a breath, she continues: “I imagine my mind will be completely overwhelmed by adrenaline. I’m curious to see how people will receive it, especially in Malta, since the film portrays Maltese traits and culture in a way that hasn’t been done before.
“Director Jean-Luc Godard said that cinema is something between art and life,” she muses, “and I hope that audiences find this overlap between fact and fiction stimulating”.
The part of Simon Bugeja is played by award-winning Tunisian actor Lotfi Abdelli. Cremona explains her choice, stating that as yet there are no Maltese actors recognisable on the international front, and this is an important factor when trying to get a film distributed overseas.
For this is her next major challenge. “It is certainly not all a bed of roses,” she sighs dramatically, “especially when you realise how specifically the industry works. If you don’t have access to sales agents and the international distribution network, which is that whole mechanism that oils the industry machine, it’s very hard to break through.”
It wasn’t just the first for me... it was the first of this type for us as a country
Ever the optimist, and fuelled by the positive feedback Simshar has received so far, Cremona is hopeful about the film’s potential of being a successful ambassador for Malta’s fledgling film industry.
Together with the film’s executive producer Luisa Bonello, the aim is to introduce the film to the foreign market via the traditional route of festival applications and pitches to sales agents and international distributors, in order to try and secure distribution in the niche foreign-language sector.
Simshar has taken up one-fifth of her life – a fact she reacts to with great surprise when she is reminded of it. How does she feel about finally letting go of her baby? But Cremona reiterates the theme that recurred throughout the interview.
“This is not my film, it is the team’s film, because it was this great opportunity and sacrifice for a collective of people. And if the people who came in on that initial wave of enthusiasm didn’t stick with it, I would have ended up on my own after the first two years… and I would never have continued.
“It will stay with me forever. It was a baptism of fire and what I learned on Simshar I will never forget. I mean, honestly, I was a little bit ambitious – scenes in the sea and filming with kids and animals, I could have chosen something a bit simpler,” she says self-deprecatingly.
She adds with a bit of a chortle: “I probably lost some relationships forever, because I was never there for anyone. After all, it’s taken me almost six years, the norm for a first film. And it wasn’t just the first for me, it was the first for a lot of the team, it was the first of this type for us as a country.”
As she embarked on the project all those years ago, Cremona said: “Some stories are so strong they just need to be told. I believe that Simshar is one of them.”
She finally gets to tell it.
Simshar premieres on April 27 and will run at The Embassy, Valletta, and The Empire, Buġibba.