Malcolm Ellul on the set of The Maltese Fighter.

This is an exciting time for Maltese film. Last Sunday marked the premiere of long-awaited, feature-length movie Simshar, while Monday saw the launch of another local film – a 19-minute short called The Maltese Fighter.

The film, which was produced through a collaboration between two Maltese and Canadian companies, is set in a time when Malta’s political violence was at its peak. The story revolves around Carmelo, a struggling single father and boxer from Valletta who is forced to join a corrupt underworld as he tries to provide for his only son, Giuseppi.

“The script deals with the struggles of life a single father and, in my opinion, it’s a story about self sacrifice,” says co-producer Joshua Cassar Gaspar. “It’s about a father who takes a fall. He is a victim of his own character and the circumstances around him, and he later pays the price for his actions.”

The Malta Film Fund, which was set up to support the creation of indigenous filmmaking and Maltese co-productions, was the starting point for this project. Cassar Gaspar was keen to work on something locally and, having seen Canadian director Arev Manoukian’s film Nuit Blanche, he contacted him to see if a partnership would be possible. He was thrilled when Manoukian, and his producer Carlo Trulli, accepted.

The Maltese Fighter is such a Maltese story that I had to make it in Maltese

“From that moment the ball was rolling,” continues Cassar Gaspar, who runs production company Maltafilm. “Matthew-Emvin Taylor, a Maltese London-based director of photography joined the project, and we scouted for the right production crew. Simshar was shooting at the same time as we were so it was a bit of a challenge, but we managed it in the end.”

Confirming the script was the next challenge and, while the film is fictional, the team looked into contemporary Maltese history to give it a clear backdrop. Then, working with locally-based screenwriter Monika Maslowska, they built the father-son plot around the world of an amateur boxer from Valletta.

“As a writer I could easily tap in into emotions to re-create a father/son relationship, but the world of boxing was something altogether different,” says Maslowska, a lecturer at the University of Malta who is currently reading for a PhD in screenwriting at Bangor University in Wales.

“In the first month of the project it was all about research, while my next step was to take up boxing so I could really understand the philosophy behind it. I then considered connections between boxing and the construction of the narrative and, through a reflective process, our ideas took shape and became a story.”

The script and cinematography combine exquisitely to recapture the aura of the 1970s, and the film definitely makes use of Valletta’s impressive locations.

“I wanted to bring 1970s Valletta to life,” says Manoukian. “I tried to design a doomed destiny for Carmelo, and hope to have created a balance between tension and beautiful drama.”

The director also chose to craft the movie in Maltese. “The Maltese Fighter is such a Maltese story that I had to make it in Maltese,” he says with a smile. “The language barrier was daunting at first but I had great support. I was lucky that I could depend on our lead actor Malcolm Ellul and assistant director Michael Kissaun, who both understand the nuances of the Maltese language as well as the nuances of film language.”

Manoukian really enjoyed shooting in Malta. “The team somehow managed to convert every production dollar into 10,” he enthuses, adding that the film took 15 days of shooting in total. “Because our short film was very low budget, we had to be very smart about everything.”

Nevertheless, he believes the result beguiles its humble outlay. “Coming from North America, I was surprised at the ease of accessing locations, especially in Valletta. Cassar Gaspar put together a very international crew, with a mix of German, Italian, Spanish and British who all had a personal connection to Malta. They were a pleasure to work with.

“The cast, meanwhile, was hard to find but, somehow, the two talented leads, Malcolm and Nico Fenech, who had never acted before, walked into our casting room. It was at that moment I knew we had a film. We then found brilliant back up in our extended cast too.”

Now that it has been launched, The Maltese Fighter will shortly start its festival circuit in Europe and North America.

“The more festivals accept the film, the more people will see it,” continues Cassar Gaspar. “We really hope this will be a step in the right direction for larger and more ambitious film projects, and that it will also promote a flavour of Malta overseas.

“This weekend has been great for Maltese film. Seeing projects like Simshar and Saul being created and produced is very motivating for the local scene. I wish them both every success.

“Meanwhile, the Malta Film Commission and Film Fund administrators are doing an excellent job. With the revamp on the Malta Film Fund, the introduction of the private equity co-production fund and the recent upgrade on the cash rebates, they are pushing on in the right direction, both for the servicing industry as well as the indigenous industry.

“It’s a very exciting time, and I certainly hope to be involved in more projects like The Maltese Fighter in the very near future.”