The producer-director of the film Dear Dom, Pierre Ellul, said today that he was surprised that his film had been described as 'dishonest' by, among others, former Labour minister Reno Calleja.
He said the comments he had received from both side of the political divide were actually the opposite.
His purpose, he said, was to have an open, mature debate about Mr Mintoff, who, like him or not, had done good and bad things. One could not focus only on the former. Everyone took good and wrong decisions, including Mr Mintoff.
His film, he said, was not a biography but in 76 minutes it sought to condense the most important elements of Mr Mintoff's political career and the emotions such events continued to provoke.
Speaking on PBS this morning, mostly in reaction to criticism by Mr Mintoff's daughter Yana on Friday, Mr Ellul said the film had been praised in the Labour and GWU media, among others.
Mr Ellul denied that the funds for the production given by the Malta Film Fund had a bearing on the production. He applied for the funds like everyone else, and once the funds were received, no one spoke to him again.
He said he had a healthy respect for Mr Mintoff and his family and he had invited the family to a special screening. It was not true that they had chased him, he organised the screening and had to postpone it once because Ms Mintoff had a PL commitment. And once the family showed up they came accompanied by other people who had not been invited but were welcome.
Mr Ellul said he had not spoken to Mr Mintoff because his health had deteriorated. Indeed, it would not have been fair to show him in his current state. However he had spoken for hours to people close to him, including his brothers.
Asked how the film featured violence which took place after Mr Mintoff resigned as prime minister, Mr Ellul said that in the 1970s and 1980s a culture of violence took root, as recognised by people such as Lino Spiteri, and when Mr Mintoff resigned in 1984 he stayed on as special adviser. And the culture persisted. This was not like a switch which was turned off once he resigned as prime minister.
With regard to the killing of Karin Grech, which a court said was political, Mr Ellul said the interview carried in the film with Dr Psaila Savona was his opinion. Despite the court sentence, one could still have opinions.
Mr Ellul insisted that the film featured a lot about Mr Mintoff's positives and also episodes such as l-interdett. He denied that the supporters known as suldati tal-azzar were shown as being Nazi, however the term suldati ta l-azzar did conjure image of marching soldiers.