The story of the 1565 Great Siege of Malta is being revived by an Italian film company in the form of a computer-animated 3D film called The Diary.
Onion Studios, which is based in Tuscany, is producing a 45-minute work of art, similar to the revolutionary techniques adopted by Walt Disney for the Oscar-winning film Shrek.
For this project, Onion Studios has brought on board a number of Maltese experts who have been working for the past year to collate information to write the screenplay.
The studios' local representative, Claire Zammit, under the supervision of university lecturer Charles Cassar, carried out the research, while Mro Paul Abela created the film's musical score.
In an interview, the film's director, Paolo Bertola said this educational project would be released in English, Maltese and Italian and also participate in numerous European film festivals.
Mr Bertola was in Malta over the weekend to oversee the work being carried out at the local end.
He explained that Onion Studios, which brought together a number of experts in the field of computer graphics, film and comics, focused on producing films for children.
In 2000 the company's fantasy film, Apuania, which told the story of witches, knights and dragons won the first prize for the category of school cinema in the popular Giffoni Festival in Salerno, one of the biggest film festivals in Europe.
"We chose the Great Siege of Malta for our next project because of its remarkable scenes and epic characters, which we felt it could be perfectly adapted for film," Mr Bertola said.
"This was a momentous event in the world's history between Christians and Islam and we felt that children have a lot to learn from it," he said.
The film, which is created from scratch in the studios, is inspired from the diary of Francesco Balbi di Corregga who lived in Malta during the Great Siege and gave an eyewitness account of events.
"Apart from Balbi's diary we also researched numerous other publications on the siege to write this fiction film, which is based on historic facts," Ms Zammit said.
The film, which has a budget of about €200,000, is expected to be shown in Italian schools and exclusively on the big screen in one local cinema by the end of September.
It will also be available for sale on video and CD. The Maltese version is being produced by Mario Parascandalo in Lunik Studios.
The film is under the patronage of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and Vittoriosa local council.