Barely a year from the release of their first feature film Saul: The Journey To Damascus, which was aired on Rai prime time and attracted 2.88 million viewers, Cittadella Films Malta Ltd has just delivered two more Maltese films, produced with Canada’s Entertainment One, which will distribute the films worldwide.
Dangerous Arrangement, co-written and directed by Mario Philip Azzopardi and The Red Dress, directed by Leif Bristow, were shot in Malta with a Maltese crew and several Maltese actors.
Davide Tucci appears in one of the leads alongside international stars Colm Meaney and Deborah Cara Unger. Music for both films was written by Elton Zarb and Mario Sammut. Daniel Lapira edited the films, which were designed by Ino Bonello and line produced by Sean Buhagiar.
The Red Dress.Both films were partly financed through the Malta international Film Equity Fund.
“These films have already generated a bigger cash flow into Malta than what was invested locally. Economically, Malta is already ahead, which proves that co-production is the only way to go for Malta’s future in film. Servicing will always be there and is most welcome, but to have an indigenous film industry, in which we contribute above the line and participate in all creative, production and financial decision making, we have to be supported by a business plan and management team that can safely sail the very dangerous waters of film finance,” says Azzopardi who, togerther with Joseph Vella Bonnici, was on the international team of executive producers.
Both films use various locations in Malta, showing off the island’s beauty. “We are presently con-cluding deals to shoot four more films by the end of this year while continuing to strive for the international co-production of The Knights of Malta.
“The infrastructure now exists to help companies take full advantage of international co-production opportunities. Government investment is essential, but it has to be backed up by the right product.”
Both films, which are love stories, will have their premiere on PBS Malta: Dangerous Arrangement will be screened on Saturday at 8.45pm and The Red Dress on June 27, also at 8. 45pm.
Tucci stars in Dangerous Arrangement, where, in a secluded cove in Malta, a beautiful young woman tries to drown herself.
Her name is Ellen, a night club employee who just days before trying to end her life was drifting through each day uneventfully, spending most of her time at work and with her hard-partying boyfriend and lovable, yet incompetent room-mates.
But when Ellen meets Amy and Carrie, everything changes as their lives spin out of control thanks to one drug-fuelled night of partying and Amy’s overdose. Amy’s father will stop at nothing to make the two girls pay for his daughter’s death.
Rachel Skarsten (50 Shades of Grey, Lost Girl) and John Rhys Davies (Raiders of the Lost Ark and Lord of the Rings) star in the thriller The Red Dress. Rainer and Patricia’s jet-setting lifestyle is irreparably altered after a horrible tragedy – the loss of their child.
Determined to build a new life, they move to an idyllic, remote portion of Malta. Surrounded by nature’s beauty, their strained relationship is reinvigorated, but the good times don’t last for long. As haunting events from the past plague them, each learn more than they bargained for.