Aldo Cauchi Savona’s miraculous recovery following a car accident has inspired a new project called Inwardly Silent. Jo Caruana meets director Nicole Cuscheri to discover the amazing story behind this story of hope.

It was the morning of September 9, 2015 when the friends and family of Aldo Cauchi Savona received the news that he’d been in a serious car accident.

When the ambulance reached Aldo – a keen photographer – he was unconscious; he had a fracture in his skull bone, there was glass in his lungs, and two of his ribs were broken. His primary motor cortex, or M1, (the part of the brain that controls body movement) on the right side was damaged, which caused his left elbow and left shoulder to be frozen, with increased muscle tone in his left arm and movement of his left foot being impaired.

His injuries were life threatening. The doctors told his parents he would be in a coma for a year, and that, when he woke up, he would have abnormal function in areas of his body due to weaker function of the brain, spinal cord, muscles, or nerves. They were also told that he would have issues speaking and decreased sensation.

“But Aldo wasn’t in a coma for a year,” smiles his friend Nicole Cuscheri. “He woke up after four months and has been recovering ever since at a very encouraging speed. He is now back at work as a programmer and is taking photos again, has gone abroad with his girlfriend and is leading a fairly normal life. He still has a way to go but, with his determination, he will reach his goal.”

As a result of his strength and positive attitude, many of Aldo’s friends have been inspired by his recovery – so inspired, in fact, that they decided to work on an artistic project together in his honour. The resulting project – Inwardly Silent – took place over this weekend, with a final performance today, and uses different disciplines (namely poetry, film, dance, music and theatre) to share Aldo’s story.

The project tells of Aldo’s experience of waking up from a coma, unable to recall his memories and slowly having to rebuild his life from scratch

At the start of the project, the team decided the ideas should spark from the story that Aldo wanted to tell about his experience of waking up from a coma, unable to recall his memories and slowly having to rebuild his life from scratch. But the project’s legacy actually stretches back to before the accident, back when he and poet Miriam Calleja had been set to colla­borate on a project together, combining photography and poetry. So, as Aldo slowly began to recover and he regained some of his memories, they discussed it again and decided to go ahead with it.

“In the interim, Miriam contacted me to add some eccentricity to the project,” says Nicole, who’s well known in the artistic realm for doing exactly that. “As we bounced ideas around with Aldo, the thing that struck us the most was his inspiring positivity and acceptance of his current situation – something we believe is aiding his speedy recovery. So we always felt that, at the core of the project, we wanted to tell Aldo’s story – a story of hope, perseverance and inner peace.”

Mariele ZammitMariele Zammit

Being involved in the project has helped Aldo in many ways. It has encouraged his love of photography and art, and being part of an artistic group project has inspired him and given him added confidence. And, finally, having the opportunity to tell his story and share his positivity with the world has been a key part of his mental as well as physical recovery.

“We encouraged him to keep a journal, recording everything he remembered from the day he woke up to that point. He documented his feelings and insights about his recovery every day, and the main message was with positivity and hope, the recovery process become faster and less traumatic. As a result, he finally achieved what he called, being Inwardly Silent,” the director says.

In the months since the project was born, each of the team members has contributed. Miriam, for instance, followed Aldo’s journal carefully and wrote several poems inspired by his words. The poems then provided the stepping-stones to many unusual and thought-provoking ideas that blossomed between the artists. Other elements include the theatre piece and film directed by Nicole, which was filmed by Ken Scicluna. The music is by Alex Vella Gregory and choreography by Brandon Shaw, with performances by Joseph Zammit, Mariele Żammit, Marilù Vella, Veronica Stivala, Karl Cassar, Clara Agius and Lukas Orphéo Schneider. The photography is, of course, by Aldo himself.

However, the one sticking point has been funding, as a project of this scale, which combines so many different disciplines, comes with quite a price tag. The project is supported by the Malta Arts Fund.

Inwardly Silent takes place today at the Wignacourt Shelters, College Street, Rabat. Tickets are available online.

www.creativeisland.com.mt

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