Simshar on film: we’re getting there | Rebecca Cremona

Making a film isn't an easy task, but when you're forced to be a cinematic pioneer in your own country, the challenges automatically increase a thousandfold.

But despite the fact that film director Rebecca Cremona has no Maltese precedents to fall back on for comfort and/or advice, and despite the bad luck that seems to have dogged her attempts to bring the real-life Simshar tragedy to the big screen, the 29-year-old film graduate (she cut her film-teeth in UK and US universities) remains determined to tell the story that "found her".

"Look, it's normal for a project of this kind - an independent debut - to take this long at development stage," she assures me, travelling down memory lane as we chat over coffee at Valletta's Café Jubilee (which she describes as her unofficial "office").

"But I think we were less lucky than most," she continues, recounting some unfortunate pitfalls that befell the production's formative stages.

"It was around December 2008 - mere months after the Simshar tragedy - that I got in touch with Simon Bugeja, the sole survivor, and began to think that there might be a story there. A few months later - in May of 2009 - someone from France saw what we had in the pipeline and optioned it, but then the recession came, and you can imagine what became of that... then another potential investor was affected really badly by the tsunami in Japan - I'm telling you, it was amazing!"

But somehow, Simshar has overcome these hurdles to slouch its way into production stage (read: actual shooting), and as we speak, Rebecca is fresh from completing one half of what will be a 'split shoot', set for completion in April.

It's tempting to assume that Rebecca's unyielding enthusiasm, coupled with the emotional - and, whisper it, 'political' - weight of the project has, like a benevolent guardian angel, nudged the project into near completion.

"Sometimes you don't have to look for a story," Rebecca says. "Sometimes the story finds you."

But it's not that difficult to understand why an artist would latch on to the Simshar tragedy.

As a cocktail of emotions; as a portrayal of injustice and a dramatisation of an unpleasant but undeniably local social phenomenon (Malta's ambiguous attitude towards migrant workers), it pretty much has it all, and perhaps it's not surprising that it received both a development, and a production grant from the 2011 Malta Film Fund.

Together with co-writer David Grech, Rebecca has crafted a story that wrenches a human drama out of the infamous accident.

The kernel of the story - and a key part of this two-pronged narrative - is of course the accident involving the titular fishing boat, which left Simon's 11-year-old son Theo and father Karmenu dead at sea.

A parallel story, also in the Mediterranean, zooms in on the fate of a medic who is ordered to stay on a boat harbouring rescued African migrants, which Malta and Italy refuse access to.

The disturbing core of the story, however, remains Simon Bugeja's revelation to Rebecca way back in 2008. As she was wrapping up her interview with him, Bugeja let slip how there were witnesses to their ordeal.

But since they were assumed to be African migrants, nobody thought to lend a helping hand.

"I just found it incredible how all of this was happening around me right there and then, and the implied themes really resonated with me," Rebecca tells me when I ask whether a film that - over and above everything else - involves exploding boats and long scenes in the water is something of a challenge to a first-time filmmaker in a country that has yet to accommodate for a film of such a scale.

"Thing is, I'm a bit hard-headed," she smiles, "and when I get an idea in my head I have to take it to its conclusion... though I confess that I completely underestimated what a pain in the ass it would be to shoot in the water!

"I'd like to say that I'd do it all over again, but you might want to check back with me a couple of months down the line to confirm that...!"

The effort will, of course, pay off in the end if everything goes according to plan. Just imagine it: an all-Maltese film production with a universal story that could easily attract international interest and put Malta on the cinematic map - not just as a film servicing location, but a film-producing one.

"When I was studying in Los Angeles, all the up-and-coming filmmakers were frustrated because they were struggling to find a new story to tell. But Malta's many stories remain untapped..."

How a film is made

Rebecca Cremona takes us through some of the basic stages of film production - and paints a picture of simshar's journey so far.

• Development

This is when the idea is born and developed, as well as when the core team starts to form and investment is sought after.

For Simshar this process took just under four years and was particularly challenging due to the fact that there is no precedent for the film and no comprehensive infrastructure for indigenous films on the island. On the other hand we found a lot of support - from Godwin's Garage and Movie People, to Farsons, JB stores, Gormina, Neriku and Azzopardi Fisheries!

• Pre-Production

Locations are scouted, actors are cast, costumes sourced, logistics figured out... and what's on paper starts becoming real. It is the process immediately preceding the shoot during which everything is prepared. In Simshar's case we will actually have two pre-production stages as we have a split shoot. The first shoot was in November, with prep starting in September; and the second shoot will commence end of March with prep starting now.

• Production

This is the actual shooting of the film. The 'Sound, Camera, Action'. Luckily in Malta we have one of the foremost filming tanks in the world (MFS), which made our first shoot much easier than if we were to do it in open water. On the other hand, our second shoot will involve several locations and extras (join our Facebook page for updates and casting calls).

• Post-Production

In order for footage to become a film, it needs to be edited, visual effects applied, sound design perfected, music scored, colour grading implemented... after we call "It's a wrap" to signal the end of the shoot, the film will still have several more months of work left before it is ready to screen to an audience.

Log on to Simshar's crowd-funding campaign to help make the film a reality.