Gozo has benefitted from activity generated by the film-servicing industry, with the recent week-long shooting of part of the Russian movie, Fort Ross, on its shores.

It has brought to the island 120 foreign crew and actors, requiring accommodation and other services, and involved 130 mostly Gozitan extras.

Fort Ross also used the services of 30 Maltese for a whole month, to build the set in the bay of Xwejni, limits of Żebbuġ.

The movie, which has a budget of $10 million, will be screened in English and Russian in cinemas and on TV stations in Russia and a number of European countries, as well as the US.

Fort Ross is being produced on the 200th anniversary of the setting up of a small Russian colony on the Californian coast.

The colony never worked and was sold to a Mexican of Swiss descent in 1941.

The film tells the story of a group of journalists, who go back in time to reveal the lack of success of the Russian colony, which was set up on September 11, 1812.

Fort Ross is being produced by Act Europe Productions Ltd and Film Corporation.