Simon Bugeja, the sole survivor of the 2008 Simshar tragedy, attempted to kill himself five times to end his misery. Ahead of the release of the film based on his story, he tells Ariadne Massa it took four years for him to regain a semblance of normality.

Simon Bugeja sits on a wooden chest staring blankly out of the window, absently caressing his four-month-old son sitting quietly on his lap, as if grasping his father’s reflective mood.

Snapping out of his daydream, Mr Bugeja’s face wrinkles with a half-smile, his face wizened by years out in the sea and sun, and his blonde locks greyed.

The past six years have aged the 40-year-old man who made headlines when he survived seven days at sea without food and water after an explosion on his fishing vessel, Simshar, on July 11, 2008.

Read the full interview in The Sunday Times of Malta, the e-paper or timesofmalta.com premium here.