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27 THIS WEEK NOTABLE 'NAM – PG 34 TEODOR RELJIC speaks to filmmaker Kenneth Scicluna, fresh off the set of 'Elegija' – a short film inspired by the poetry of Doreen Micallef, to be screened at the upcoming Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival maltatoday, SUNDAY, 24 AUGUST 2014 The challenges of adaptation SUCCULENT SKEWERS – PG 33 MYTHIC MERCENARIES – PG 35 W hat were some of the main challenges you faced when adapting poetry to f ilm? How is it dif ferent f rom a more "conventional" f ilm script? I think the process of ad- aptation takes a similar path no matter the nature of the source – one seeks the soul of the original work and recreates it in film. It is, by necessit y, a process of destruction and rec- reation. The challenge, in this case, was less because the source material was in the form of a poem, and more due to the na- ture of Doreen Micallef 's po- etr y. If any thing, a poem lends itself more readily to transposi- tion into film than, say, a novel, because length tends to be con- tained. Some poets revel in images, visual and auditor y: Ted Hugh- es' The Hawk in The Rain, to a degree, could in itself be the script to a short film. Micallef, on the other hand, pours out her heart, particularly in the t wo poems chosen for adapta- tion: Dedika and Eleġija. Epis- tolar y in nature, the poems have scant references to sounds and images. The visceral pleas, and melancholy admonitions that Micallef sends towards "the other" are appealing in their directness, and yet, in their translation to a filmic ex- istence, require the search for, and creation of, objective cor- relatives that give those words a physical dimension. And yet, Doreen Micallef 's po- etr y can be physical. A lthough the ef fect is subtle in the poems mentioned above, in others like Iħirsa and Profezija (which are also more metaphorical in na- ture), the layout of the poem it- self is as important as the con- tent. Sprawled across the page, f lowing, leaping, zig-zagging downwards, the form is insepa- rable from the words. That st yle in itself illuminates the kind of time and space that the film needs to inhabit. In Dedika and Eleġija, a single word changes the direction of thought, and subsequently, of narrative. From the latter: F 'għajnejk hemm ħarsa xotta ta' dmugħ nie xef qoxqox li ma tibki x waqt l-aħħar tislima jew l-aħħar tbissima I hope that the changes I had to make, in the leap from page to screen, of fer a respectf ul re- interpretation of Doreen Mi- callef 's art. In reading bet ween the lines, to seek out themes, I tried not to go far beyond. For example, take the anonymous "other". There is anecdotal evidence of who such men could have been, but no such concrete hints are to be found within the poems. In not wanting to present a male face, I have turned the "other" into a female – that way, the issues bet ween the t wo are not coloured by the physi- ognomy of a male actor, even though there is a male cata- lyst in the film, but stay on the level of a relationship bet ween t wo humans, even though they have ver y dif ferent traits, with the issue not becoming one of gender. Likewise the notions of God, the universe, creation. The lat- ter, and the various aspects of it, is one of the defining themes of the film. God, as a Christian entit y, does not come into the film, but becomes a facet of creation. The notion of the universe again feeds of f aspects of crea- tion, but also informs the de- structive facet of the film, in the idea of bodies that simul- taneously attract and repel each other, that stay together as long as there is a degree of separation bet ween the t wo – when that distance is forcef ully breached, implosion occurs. If you will, the process that led to the script was one of in- terrogation with the characters. The outline was based on an in- terpretation of the themes. The f lesh of characters' experiences came out through a process of questioning, within the limits set by the themes. In creating the film, and be- fore shooting started, the proc- ess went f urther through a round of questioning with the actors, adding to, or changing what the characters would have said about themselves, inform- ing not just the performances, but also the interaction of the medium with the narrative. W hat was it about Doreen Micallef 's poetry in particu- lar that kept you interested? I would say the bold, fierce, rawness with which she sees through her life and those around her. The way she moulds time. The way she puppeteers the universe, and yet allows her- self to be manipulated. She scorns, and yet, she loves. She lives within herself and within others, f litting through forms of existence, and emerging the sadder for it. T he Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival will be tak- ing place bet ween September 4 and 6 at the Msida Bastion Gardens, Floriana at 20:00. Eleġijia is being produced in collaboration bet ween Vallet- ta 2018 and Inizjamed , which aims to provide a plat form for Maltese literature. T he project is being carried out as part of the preparations for the European Capital of Culture in 2018 Top and bottom left: Stills from Elegija. Production photos by Tomoko Goto