EUNIC New Delhi
The High Commission of the Republic of Malta in collaboration with Arts Council Malta, participated in the European Union Film Festival – India (EUFF), an annual event organised by the EU Delegation to India along with Member States. The festival celebrates the diversity and depth of European cinema and culture, featuring award-winning films from all 27 European Union countries. This year marked the 28th edition of the EU Film Festival, which showcased free film screenings in over 25 languages, including 18 films by female directors, from 1st to 10th December. Films ranged multiple genres, from comedy to drama, sci-fi to romance and animation to suspense. With rich themes, the films take the audience on a cinematic journey with narratives that underline the crucial role of inter-generational and intercultural dialogue and celebrate the creative and cultural exchange between the EU and India. Malta participated with the award-winning Maltese movie “Carmen” directed by Valerie Buhagiar, which was screened on 5th December 2023 at the Istituto Cervantes.
THE FILM
CARMEN, produced in 2022, and directed by Valerie Buhagiar, is set in Malta village in Malta. Carmen (Natascha McElhone) has looked after her brother, the priest at the local church, since she was sixteen years old. Now almost fifty, she is suddenly left to start a new life. Facing her past, Carmen brings colour to the lives of the villagers in this compelling story about a woman finding her voice.
Natascha McElhone played the lead in her first film, Merchant Ivory’s Surviving Picasso, opposite Anthony Hopkins. She quickly followed this with Peter Weir’s film, The Truman Show; Alan J. Pakula’s The Devil’s Own, with Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford; and John Frankenheimer’s action epic Ronin, in which she co-starred with Robert De Niro. She also played Rosalind to Kenneth Branagh’s Berowne in his musical version of William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. In the futuristic love story Solaris, she co- starred with George Clooney directed by Steven Soderbergh. For TV McElhone has starred in the series. Designated Survivor as first lady to Kiefer Sutherland’s President; She is probably best known for her role of Karen in seven series of the cult comedy drama Californication (Showtime) and featured in the most recent season of The Crown (Netflix).
Valerie Buhagiar starred in films like the international hits Highway 61 and Roadkill. She won a Best Short award at the Chicago International Film Festival as a writer-director of the short film The Passion of Rita Camilleri. She won other awards with her features The Anniversary and It’s Hard To Be Human. Pierre Ellul, Anika Psaila Savona, and Coral Aiken are the producers.
Pierre Ellul setup Falkun Films in Malta in 2007. In 2006 he was nominated for a Directors Guild of America award for the film Munich as part of Spielberg’s directorial team. Other selected credits in a production capacity include Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki (2011), the successful Danish film All Inclusive (2013) and The Promise (2015). He is Executive Producer on the Sundance 2021 award winning film Luzzu.
Anika Psaila Savona was involved in the setting up of Falkun Films in 2007. A lawyer by profession, she read for a Masters at the University of Oxford. With Falkun Films, Anika is the in-house legal advisor and projects she’s worked on include, amongst others, the Oscar-nominated American Assassi, Renegades KonTiki, and The Promise. Anika was the executive producer on Dear Dom.
Coral Aiken is a creative producer based in Toronto, Canada. She founded Aiken Heart Films in 2014. Her films have screened in competition at Cannes Cinéfondation, Seattle, TIFF, Sarajevo, Buenos Aires, in the Locarno Academy, and on Nowness.com. Coral teaches at LIFT, York University, and the Canadian Film Centre. Coral’s latest short film Succor premiered at TIFF 2020; a feature adaptation is in development with writer director Hannah Cheesman.
Click the link more on the Festival: https://euffindia.com/?fbclid=IwAR3o5YhtU7An7hxKkRo9Fyvmsr49OGkt0Ovc3_s8YdsvZNlMmLPt0M1D3N0
For the Brochure: https://euffindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/EUFF-Brochure-2023-1.pdf
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