Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1492490
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 FEBRUARY 2023 8 ALMANAC My essentials LAR A CALLEJA 34, Author, Writer, Activist An Award-Winning Author, an activist, and a full-time writer. I also juggle playwriting and photography. I love the simple, the quirky and the unusual. I appreciate contrasts in life - and do not like labels. I like stories, every story. I love to engage with people from all walks of life. I am both chaotic and structured, and I understand and try to be humble about my privileges in life - that is why I am an activist and that is why I try my best to be kind to both the world and the people around me. Still, I am a human, and I both apologize for, as well as accept my many human flaws. 1 4 5 1. Book 2. Film 3. Internet/TV 4. Music 5. Place I follow Russell Brand's 'Un- der The Skin' podcast. I fol- low The Guardian and Al Jazeera news platforms. I like silly animal reels on Insta- gram – where I laugh whole- heartedly and remind myself that I have to extend my an- imal family once I move into my new home. Maybe two elderly dogs, and a parrot? As long as they all go well with my 15-year-old cat, Fragu. 'TUTTI Morimmo a Stento', by the late Fabrizio De André. This album has accompanied me through the many different phases of my life. It gave me a beautiful symphony to relate to whenever life felt a bit too much. I love De André in gen- eral – his kindness and intel- ligence resonated through his voice; his human and political sensibility exuded through his music. THERE'S a place by the sea in Marsaskala. It's by the salt pans and has a rock cavity fac- ing the sea. This has been my favourite spot since I was 15. I call it 'my little cave' and in it, I have shared a glass of wine with all sorts of friends over the years. It was also a place I liked to go by myself – to cry, to be angry, to be by myself. In this cave, I scribbled more than enough teenage-angst- fuelled poems and prose – my very first attempts at writing literature. I still visit this place – sometimes I even go for sun- rises or go watch the violet sky during a thunderstorm. It's my go-to place – for both the sad- dest and happiest of moments. NOT easy. But if I have to choose, it will be' Stories of Eva Luna' by Isabella Allende (not to be mistaken for 'Eva Luna' by the same author). This col- lection of short stories from strong women from all cor- ners of the world – has taken me through all sorts of places and emotions. There's a sense of magic, awe and inexplicable inspiration derived from these humble stories of women, who are far from perfect, who are simply doing their best to sur- vive, and whose strengths and weaknesses remind you of the beauty of being unapologetic to whoever you choose to be as a person. 'NON Ti Muovere', by Sergio Castiletti. It's a film about love, obsession, conflicting charac- ters and traumas. As the mov- ie shifts through different time frames, the characters evolve drastically; and there's a sense of longing and redemption that tags along. This movie is definitely one of the most 'im- proper' yet most beautiful love stories I have ever watched on screen. 3 2