Earlier this month I was part of a filming team shooting a small movie in Malta. We were filming around Comino using a helicopter and we needed to land our crew near the Comino Tower. We then needed to bring the crew from the tower to a waiting boat.

To my shock I discovered that all vehicles are grounded due to some technicality with a road licence. I found this particularly amusing when I discovered that the roads on Comino are not maintained by the government but by a Comino resident named Salvu whose own vehicles are grounded. I would imagine that with Malta now being in the EU there would be some sort of common sense applied to these circumstances before they negatively affect the public or such business activities like ours.

On a similar note I was equally amused during my visit to the Rinella tanks in Kalkara when a crane sent by the government was attempting to remove an innocent building which stood harmlessly near the tank and which was apparently built to facilitate special construction of a Japanese movie currently shooting in the tank. I was told that this was considered "illegal" and an "eyesore" for tourists visiting the old Fort Rinella nearby. This spurred my colleagues and I to visit this fort which I must say has been beautifully renovated. When we peeked over the high wall near the massive cannon we only noticed this "illegal" building because we were searching for it. It is below the eyeline and I cannot imagine how tourists at the fort could be perturbed by it in any way.

Whatever political gerrymandering is taking place or whether this is simply a case of lack of common sense, I urge everyone responsible to apply a common sense approach to such situations, especially when one considers the potential Malta has as a filming location. While everyone should abide by the rules, such stupid reactions from the government give a warped impression about the way things are done in Malta!