What do Monica Bellucci, Elvis Presley and Greenpeace have in common? They all feature in the first edition of the Valletta Film Festival. Veronica Stivala takes a seat.

Next week, Monica Bellucci will be at St George’s Square in Valletta – although on a screen – Elvis Presley’s songs will echo through the halls of St James Cavalier, and you will be able to witness a spectacular story about Siena’s oldest horse race, the palio.

These are some of the attractions that visitors to the Valletta Film Festival will be able to experience, together with tales of adventure and epic travels, plots that twist and turn with laughter or are strung with sadness, stories about the origins and growth of Greenpeace, as well as an intriguing look inside a taxi in Tehran.

Starting on June 15, Valletta will be holding its first film festival. The aim of this festival is to become a leading cultural event in Malta and a major film festival in the Mediterranean, showing local and international audiences high-quality productions from all over the world.

On five screens placed around the capital city, three of which outdoor, the festival will present progressive and innovative independent cinema and a wide range of feature length documentaries.

It is the city that has the most cinematographic backdrops in Malta

The festival will also consist of talks, workshops, exhibitions and debates about various subjects including society, culture and other contemporary affairs.

The festival is being run by Slavko Vukanovic. A familiar name on the local film scene, Vukanovic has organised the Kinemastik Short Film Festival for the past 10 years, together with Bojana Dimitrovska and Oliver Mallia.

“The festival will present a significant number of latest independent, international works to local audiences. There are many films out there that never make it to our island and when they do, they lack the attention they deserve. We intend to make that right,” he says.

The Film Grain Foundation, which is organising the festival, has chosen Valletta as venue because it is the city that has the most cinematographic backdrops in Malta.

One of the distinguishing factors of this festival is identity. While still in its first year, the festival aims to build on having a strong identity.

There will be a section called Islanders, which is dedicated to films that are either made on an island or its makers hail from an island.

The Valletta Film Festival runs from June 15-21. For more information visit www.vallettafilmfestival.com.

A word from the creators

Joshua Cassar Gaspar
The Maltese Fighter

Producer

• This short film is based on a father-son relationship in 1970s Malta. Carmelo, a struggling single father and boxer from Valletta, is forced to join a corrupt underworld as he tries to provide for his only son Giuseppi. Although fictionalised, the backdrop faithfully renders the political violence and social unrest in 1970s Malta. This, together with Valletta’s beautiful architecture, intrigued the director.

Speaking about the challenges faced, Cassar Gaspar notes how it was no mean feat for Canadian director Arev Manoukian to direct a film in a language he does not understand. The Maltese Fighter premiered in May this year where it played as part of the official selection for the 2015 Louisiana International Film Festival. The film is currently limited to festival release only due to the adopted distribution strategy.

Francesco Clerici
Il Gesto delle Mani (Berlinale Fipresci Award 2015)

Director

• The documentary is an insight into the work of a 100-year old bronze foundry in Italy: a place where past and present share the same gestures and where each gesture is a sculpture itself. Clerici first walked into the Fonderia Battaglia in Milan eight years ago one snowy day. A few years later he returned to follow Velasco Vitali more closely.

Intrigued by the lost wax casting process, Clerici decided to make this documentary and confesses that he reached a point when he wondered whether he should “stop shooting and apply for a job, as I was completely hypnotised by the rhythm of their gestures while working. And so I wanted to give back to cinema as it appeared to me.”

Cosima Spender
Palio (Tribeca Film Festival Award 2015)

Director

• Palio is an epic story about a young jockey who challenges his former master in the palio, the most ancient and dangerous horse race in the world. The biggest challenge for Spender was to shoot a story unfolding in the present.

“It was impossible to know what the story was going to be before the race began.”

She chose to follow the most experienced and successful jockey as well as a younger, less experienced one to capture the hierarchy of power in the world of jockeys. It turned out to be a lucky choice, as the two of them were classic antagonists.

“Siena’s palio is shrouded in mystery and secrecy, so I included a retired older jockey who acts as narrator, shedding light on the machinations taking place. In the edit, the challenge was to lead the viewers into a world with strange counter-intuitive rules without alienating them with too many facts.”