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16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 INTERVIEW There is a lot of interest surrounding 'Storbju': enough to attract at least two major Hollywood names, Harvey Keitel, and Malcolm McDowell. Do you think this interest will be shared by the international cinema-going public? What is it about 'Sette Giugno' that has global appeal? It has always been my dream to make films about the reali- ties I see and live through my- self: films that tell a story about where I'm from. But we have to be realistic. This is Malta, not Hollywood; we don't have the budget or the logistical ca- pability to make blockbuster movies about superheroes, for instance. But that doesn't mean we don't have stories to tell. Es- sentially, a good story is always go-ing to be about human be- ings. So whether it takes place in Malta in 1919, or anywhere else at any other time: if it's well- written, it will resonate. If you were to take the story of Sette Giugno, and transplant it to any other country in Europe… it would work. Because it is the story of an oppressor that is subjugating people; and people rebelling against that oppressor. You will see the same basic pat- tern in a hundred other histori- cal episodes, anywhere in the world. For example: when I was talking to Harvey [Keitel], he told me that: 'Listen, we were a colony as well. We rose against our oppressors, too. I feel what the struggle is…' Would you say, then, that making 'Storbju' represents a lifetime ambition of yours? Not really, no. In fact, when they [the Malta Film Fund] ap- proached me with a proposition to make this film, I originally said no. I said it was impossible to do, with the budget and re- sources available. But they kept insisting… asking me to 'be creative'. So I started thinking about the market; about how I would sell this film. And there were two things I felt would make a difference. First, to do it in both Maltese and English… which helps, even because it means fewer subtitles. Second- ly, to attract a name that would help sell the production. So I spoke to a sales agent I already knew from before, and we started looking at potential actors. And when it came to the script, the idea was to split it into four interweaving stories: the story of the acting governor Walter Charles Hunter Blair – to be played by Harvey Keitel; his assistant Col. Saville, played by Malcolm McDowell; the sto- ry of the soldiers who opened fire on the crowd… because, for me, it's also about that 22-year- old man, thrust into the middle of a situation he doesn't un- derstand, faced with a crowd of some 15,000 angry people shouting at him in a strange language. There is an element of fear there, too. I don't want this to be an 'anti-British film'. The soldiers, I imagine, were just pawns in a much bigger game. Then, you have the story of Carmelo Abela – one of the vic- tims – who was killed because he went to stop his teenage son from protesting. He tried to pull his son out of the crowd… and got shot himself… Historically, however, there are a lot of doubts surrounding what actually hap-pened that day. Descendants of the families of millers, whose homes were ran-sacked, have a different story to tell. Does 'Storbju' go into any of these con-troversies? No. I was after something dif- ferent, to be honest. Because let's face it: history is always written by the victor. But this is not a documentary. It's a film about nor-mal people caught up in an extraordinary situa- tion. Because an uprising is an ex-traordinary situation. Take that 15-year-old son of Carmelo Abela, who went out to protest. What was he pro- testing about? Did he believe he was going to change the world? Was it 'machismo'? There are a lot of elements like that. But one of the things that intrigued me most, as I was doing the re- search, was that after the event, 115 people were arrested and imprisoned for their involve- ment. To me, that is horrifying. Even because I simply didn't know that detail before. And I get the same impression speaking about it with other people. There are some details that most people are famil- iar with… but that 115 people were arrested? Nobody, except maybe historians, seem to know that. Even in terms of documented history, there isn't very much. Only two photographs of the incident itself are known to ex- ist. So the film is based largely on published books about Sette Giugno; but also on the origi- nal reports. These reports were questioned, even at the time. Among the testimonies by the British soldiers, for example, there were claims that the Mal- tese had fired at them first... but nothing we can consider con- clusive. It's as though our collective memory is a little distorted, to a certain degree. This is why I feel that 'Storbju' is, first of all, an ambitious project; but it is also an important one. So I feel very proud to have eventually changed my mind, and accept- ed to make this film. Given that the facts themselves are debatable: does 'Storbju' present any form of interpretation of its own? Or is the intention to use the historical events as a setting for a fictional story? Neither, I would say. I wouldn't want to patronise people, by telling them 'this is the truth'. Nor do I have God- like faculties, to know what the truth even is. The narrative is based on historical facts, yes… but I'm interested in the human beings at the heart of the story. How would people react under such circumstances? This is how the script was developed… and it seems to be working, in- sofar as scripts go. But it is still in development: and one of the most interesting things about this production is the feedback we're getting from actors. We are lucky to have a director [Davide Ferrario] who is open to quite a lot: and even now, the script is developing with the actors. Not just with Hollywood actors like Harvey or Malcolm; I'm seeing this with Maltese actors, too. I was surprised, for instance, at how some of the ones who have small parts – just one or two lines of dialogue - have built up an entire character. Just yester- day, one actor came up with an idea for his role – something I hadn't thought of myself – and we're even changing the cos- tume to suit the new part. Be- cause it makes more sense, his way. I have to admit this is some- thing I wasn't really open to, say, 10 years ago. I used to con- sider a script to be like the Bi- ble: it had to be followed to the letter. But I'm a lot more open to it today… it is important for actors to have that kind of pas- sion, if they're going to tell a story. Earlier you mentioned the lack of resources hampering the Film producer JEAN-PAUL MAGRO on the opportunities (and tribulations) of trying to make a high- quality, international standard historical movie about 'Sette Giugno' … in a country which lacks the logistical capability to tell its own stories through film 'We need to market Raphael Vassallo Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES BIANCHI