Pierre J. Mejlak, in a carriage somewhere between Gozo and Brussels.

Pierre J. Mejlak is one of Malta’s finest young writers. He has published books for children, adaptations, a novel – which has been turned into a TV series – and a critically acclaimed collection of short stories. In the process, he’s won a Malta Literary Prize, two National Book Awards and the Sea of Words European Short Story Award. Pierre’s next project is a collection of short stories for adults, to be published by Merlin in 2011. Sneak previews have already described it as ‘powerful and exquisite.’

I was brought up in the neighbouring Gozitan villages of Qala and Nadur in the eighties. They’re a stone’s throw away from each other but there are differences. To start with, there’s Nadur – a proud little town perched on a hill. Most of its people are returned migrants, who, for some years, enjoyed an unrivalled purchasing power in Gozo, earning them the title of New Yorkers. The people of Qala are somehow simpler and more humble. Even their choice of patron saints – Church pillars St Peter and St Paul on one side and carpenter St Joseph on the other, must say something about both peoples.

A group of young men from Qala once went to a crossroad between both villages and sprayed ‘New York’ with an arrow pointing to the road leading to Nadur. I can imagine them going back home that night, thrilled at their wit, and convinced that the people of Nadur would remove every trace of their opus by morning. Instead, morning came and ‘New York’ was still there, but with another word sprayed a few metres away with an arrow pointing at the opposite direction. Calcutta.

I’m fond of both villages. They balance each other and I feel at home in both. No day in Gozo would be complete without a stop at Zeppi’s Pub (formerly known as Tal-Baharru) on Qala Square and, in summer, a swim at as yet-unspoilt Hondoq ir-Rummien. Rhythms in both villages are still slow and lazy and everything seems like it will never change. Some of my stories are set in these villages, including ‘Is-sajf tad-89’ (the summer of 89), ‘Talb’ (prayers), ‘Il-hofra’ (the hole), ‘Mill-gholi tas-sema’ (from high up in the sky) and ‘Jacqueline’.

I lived in Qala until I was eight. My family managed the Nationalist Party club, where a handful of men used to meet every night, after dinner, to talk about everything but mainly politics. It was from my favourite spot in that bar – underneath the billiards’ table – that I learnt to observe. My memories of those years are all gathered in my short story ‘Dar ix-Xoghol’, which was published in my first anthology of short stories for adults, Qed Nistenniek Niezla max-Xita (I’m waiting for you to fall with the rain).

People are a constant source of fascination and curiosity. I think up stories about my neighbours and then end up dodging them, in case they reveal something that will contradict my fictions about them. I like to observe people – on my way to work each morning, at a restaurant, on a plane or at the cinema. I usually write when I’m alone, ideally at home or in a room without too many distractions. A story can develop from a little thing that inspires me – a face in a crowd, a song that rekindles a memory, something that strikes me while I’m stuck in a traffic jam. Of course there’s a bit of me in every story. But, usually, it’s just a little bit.

I started writing when I was young – around twelve or thirteen. Call it the vanity of seeing your name in a school magazine. Writing made me feel comfortable in my own skin. I realised early on, that I was no good at mathematics, or would ever make it as a scientist. School gives you an early barometer for what you’re cut out to do.

When I was thirteen, I decided to work through summer to secure some financial independence. The only place that was safe for a child to moonlight was Comino – the authorities went easy on spot-checks there, back then. I spent weeks carrying cutlery from the dish-washer to the restaurant, and – often – kept a safe distance away from the guests. I remember being on the boat, in the early hours of one morning, getting drenched with spray and something snapped. It was then I decided I should write. I spent the rest of the summer writing a mildly embarrassing story: after a few years and some major editing, it became my first published book.

At 21, following my final University exam and hungry for experience, I left Gozo to work for the European Union’s publishing arm in Luxembourg. I spent a few months there before moving to more cosmopolitan Brussels. That’s where I found my voice and where I started writing for real. It’s one thing visiting a place on holiday and hoping for inspiration – quite another living somewhere foreign without thinking of having to leave. Feeling part of a larger world is a wonderful sensation.

I think becoming part of the EU was one of the most exciting things to happen to anyone of my generation. Getting in from the main door is something that we have started to take for granted. I come from a family of returned migrants. My parents met in New York, some of my relatives are still there. So I grew up tuned to their stories of grafting to make ends meet in a strange city … struggling to find networks, trying to find a way of surviving and not getting kicked out. Nowadays, young people in Malta know they always have an exit route to another life.

I’ve been back in Malta for just over a year and I’ve had to renegotiate how I write. I think that in a small place like this, it’s as easy to get consumed by the idea of trying to make a difference as by the anger of not being able to. It’s not always possible to detach oneself and disengage from the trivial stuff of a small island. To feel part of a larger world, on Saturdays I buy La Repubblica or Le Monde and skim through it in a café in Valletta.

My long pit stop in Malta is a sabbatical of sorts – definitely not a working holiday. I felt it was time to let my country surprise me, to see what it feels like to live in its capital city and to keep looking for where home really is.

For more information visit Pierre’s website.

Photo: Julia Turlejska

Malta has two official languages: English and Maltese. Thousands of Maltese children are being brought up in families where English is not spoken regularly. We have also thousands of children living on these islands whose first language is not Maltese. Although we are officially a bilingual society Maltese and English are taught in our schools as if these are two native languages that our children acquire automatically through schooling and socialization.

We have a one-size-fits-all language policy for all our children and schools. This has not worked as on average only 56% of our students walk away with passes in the Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) in English Language and Maltese. At least 44% of our fifth formers still do not manage to become competent in English Language and Maltese after at least 12 years of schooling. SEC and Junior Lyceum examiners still refer to poor spelling, weak grasp of grammar and syntax, poor reading habits and lack of imagination and creativity in their year reports on students’ performance in English Language and Maltese SEC and Junior Lyceum examinations.

To change all this we need to design appropriate curricula, examinations, syllabi, content and pedagogical methods in the teaching and learning of English and Maltese.

The Maltese SEC and MATSEC examination needs to be split into two different papers: a language component and another in literature. Our students should be given the option to choose one of these papers and a pass in the Maltese Language SEC and MATSEC exam should be enough to qualify them for a course at the University of Malta. Steps should be taken to modernise the teaching of Maltese and choose content that is more relevant to the young people going through their education now.

Forcing thousands of our teenagers to do a Maltese SEC syllabus that is closer to a pre-industrial Malta 80 years ago than to their daily life makes them hate Maltese literature and gives them the sensation that Maltese is a strange and remote language.

We have very good writers who are creating literature that is very relevant for young people growing up today but this literature is kept away from our schools.

Teaching material and methods have been developed to help foreigners learn Maltese but our schools do not make any use of these experiences. The same goes for the teaching of English where the success we have achieved in teaching the language to over a million foreigners has not been transferred to our schools to teach our own youngsters.

We should use the know-how and experience we have built in the sector of the teaching of English as a foreign language to improve the teaching of Maltese and English in our primary and secondary schools.

Malta should celebrate its bilingualism, but let each language play to its strengths

My son is in primary school and is taken out of class four days a week for extra Maltese lessons, along with four other children who are either foreign or are part Maltese, part another nationality. He, and most of the others in this group hate being singled out. English is the language of instruction throughout the school day except during regular Maltese lessons. If he carries on to tertiary education in Malta, he may go to the University of Malta where English is also the language of instruction. A few weeks ago, the university senate decided that it will allow students to sit exams only in English. Gone is the right, for example, for a physics student to opt to sit papers in Maltese. But Maltese at school leaving level remains a university entrance requirement.

The paragraph above hints at a multitude of issues surrounding the country’s use of Maltese and English, both official languages. The university’s move has brought to the boil what has always simmered in Maltese society – its uneasy relationship with two languages, each of which has its rightful place and use in Malta today. Here are the key issues bandied about right now:

1. Practicality: Maltese is of little ‘use’ beyond Malta’s confines, while English is a lingua franca and world language. English therefore is essential to Maltese children’s education if they are to access knowledge, careers, education, society and more outside these shores. University students, reading any subject, including Maltese, are required to digest texts in English and it is mainly through English that they will exchange ideas with overseas’ counterparts.

2. Cultural Identity: Maltese is an important part of the Malta’s cultural identity and history, just as Gaelic is to Wales or Ireland. It needs to be kept alive, spoken and written, and celebrated. We have several young inspiring writers in Maltese who are making sure the literature and language are relevant to today’s youngsters.

3. Nationalism: Some people equate use of a particular language with nationalism. This is a sad move as it causes conflict between users of the two languages for the wrong reasons. Pride in one’s culture is desirable and speaking a language is part of a cultural identity. Nationalism, which has no place in any debate, should not infiltrate sensible discussion of the use of Maltese and English, both of which, and let’s remind ourselves, are joint official languages.

The sooner people feel at ease with both and use them at the right times, playing to each language’s strength as the situation demands (as the university’s move shows), the better. The EU recognising Maltese as an official language is a diplomatic, politically sensitive decision, but has little justification in practical terms. Goodness knows how many hundreds of thousands of Euro are spent on translating the wordy EU texts into Maltese when, as a journalist friend told me, barely anyone picks up the Maltese texts from the press pigeon holes!

As to my son, well, he will continue with Maltese although it’s my right to not have him learn Maltese at all. A recent article in the UK’s Saturday Telegraph paper cites research showing that bilingualism helps children’s learning in all areas: their brains become more nimble; they are sophisticated communicators connecting to people from all backgrounds and are sensitive to notions of race and culture from an early age; they have more self confidence and do well at school; they become adept at thinking about ideas and concepts in different ways. If well taught in both languages (not a mish-mash pidgin version of both), children will develop a higher ‘metaliguistic awareness’, or understanding of just how languages work. This means they can more easily learn a second or third language. And that’s a great benefit.

So, instead of fighting about Malta’s language question, let’s celebrate its bilingualism but let each language work where it works best for individuals. But I do want my government literature to be in English too – at the moment it’s a haphazard affair and perhaps symbolic of the uneasy relationship authorities have towards the languages. I think also that someone will soon challenge whether Maltese need be a blanket entrance requirement for university – for certain subjects only surely?

Photo: Amanda Holmes

University of Malta: open or closed to exploring the limits of a nation's morality?

On 29^th October, the Rector of the University of Malta banned the publication of Ir-Realta’, a student magazine, and reported the editor, as well as the writer of a piece within its covers, to the police.  The ban triggered a national debate about censorship and freedom of expression:  our view was (and remains) that this was yet another side-effect of the smallness of the nation.  On the 4^th December, the Rector wrote in a national newspaper to explain his decision and students held protests on the University campus on the same day.

Andrew Galea, a University student and writer, wades into the debate with his personal opinion on the matter.

Isn’t it fair to say that people expressing opinions in public should do so responsibly?  And that they should disseminate their messages having considered their audiences carefully?

So far, these question have been lacking in discussions on the censorship of Alex Vella Gera’s  ‘Li Tkisser Sewwi’, published in the student magazine Ir-Realta’. The debate should not be focusing on the piece’s literary worth – that is purely subjective – but rather on the propriety of publishing so graphic a story in a freely-accessible journal.  It worries me that no one seems to have picked up on this.

There are specific reasons why films are age classified.  And it doesn’t take a background in psychology to appreciate the effect of so vivid and colourful a story as ‘Li Tkisser Sewwi’ on young minds.  This is why such material is legally designated in most countries as unsuitable for dissemination to those below the age of 18.

The argument of the editor of Ir-Realta’, for whom I have a tremendous respect, is that he has ‘never seen a child roaming about university campus’.  I find his argument falls short.  If, by child, he means primary or middle school students, then I too have only seen children in the context of school excursions to the university library, or science week on campus, or being walked from the crèche.  However, he appears to exclude the prospective sixth form students and occasional secondary student, who are usually below the age of 18. Quite apart from this though, I believe that Ir-Realta’ is distributed at Junior College.

However, this is more than an issue of age classification, because, in any case, the appropriate classification for such an article can be disputed; some might say 18, some 16.  The point is more that no effort at all was made to give readers advance warning of the nature of the story in the now infamous Issue 8.

I have read most of Ir-Realta’s publications keenly, enjoying intelligent and thought-provoking articles and opinions. However, I was surprised by the unusual inclusion of a story like this.  It is not something I am accustomed to reading in Ir-Realta’, and not something I would necessarily look to the paper to provide.  Given this, it’s not hard therefore to imagine someone putting it down inadvertently on the kitchen table, not having read the piece in question, and then have a younger sibling pick it up and read it.

Bizarrely, those arguing against the banning by the Rector of Issue 8, have drawn comparisons between their case and the censorship of Unifaun theatre’s production ‘Stitching’, written by Anthony Neilson, as well as the arrest of the person who created and projected weird visuals at a party, and a man arrested for impersonating Jesus at a Nadur carnival.

The parallels fail most prominently because of the reasons for the censorship. In the case of ‘Stitching’, we have a play that was not even properly read by the censors, and was thus banned on ignorant, ridiculous grounds.  With regards to the young man sentenced to six months prison with a fine for his visuals of the Pope and then of a naked woman, as well as the man arrested for impersonating Jesus at a Nadur carnival, we have cases of censorship that are at worst akin to fundamentalism and at best just downright humorless.

I would conclude by saying this to those incensed by the perceived censorship of Ir-Realta’ and everyone else jumping on the whole anti-censorship bandwagon:  your right to freedom of expression is indeed sacred, but so too is the right of others to be warned in advance that some of what you say or do may be offensive.  In short, would it have hurt so much to offer an explanation or an age classification sticker with the story?the unsuspecting public – particularly youths.

Photo: Albireo

Norbert Bugeja, a master of metaphor and a teller of city dwellers' tales

We often hear the analogy that Malta is a city surrounded by water. And it’s true, our environment is increasingly urban, high rise and densely populated. But a city is more than this stereotype. One man who has spent more time than most in analysing the meaning and metaphor of the ‘city’ is Norbert Bugeja, one of Malta’s leading, young, contemporary poets. We’ll get a chance to see him perform his poetry at the launch of his new anthology ‘Bliet’ (Cities) at 8pm, Friday, 11 December, in the Music Room at St James Cavalier Center for Creativity, Valletta.

Bugeja’s new work is being considered a major contribution to contemporary literature in Maltese. His performance will be accompanied by leading percussionist Renzo Spiteri and acclaimed actor/performer Nicole Bugeja. At the launch, Norbert will perform some of his most popular poems. You’re advised to book early as the event is expected to attract a good audience.

The poems in ‘Bliet’ capture the ‘here and now’ of urban living in cities and towns in and around the Mediterranean as well as in Malta. Bugeja’s poetry carries with it the fascination with journeying, hot on the trail of those unusual stories hidden behind the thick walls, backstreets, squares and narrow pathways where this country and her shadow-cities carry on with their everyday chores.

‘Bliet’ is a relentless autopsy of every nook and cranny we live in and Bugeja leaves no stone unturned. It’s a story in image, rhythm and metaphor; the exhilarating diary of an urban soul that will take you around the steps, ruins, lanes, shopping malls, arenas and rivers that shape the city’s body. From Valletta to Cordoba, from Rome to Seville and Tangiers, from the Birgu’s to the Diju Balli’s of the mind’s eye, ‘Bliet’ is a masterful portrait of our cities’ explosive interiors.

Fellow poet, and critic, Maria Grech Ganado has this to say of Bugeja’s work: “Norbert’s poems remind me of sculpture, with the wind as sculptor. His metaphors are among the strongest I have ever read, his rhythms trance-like. His cities are hewn out of rock but just as simultaneously out of sand. Reading him is like finding a treasure, a rewarding and, to me, a unique experience.’ ‘Bliet’ comes too with an introduction by Dr Adrian Grima, a foremost Maltese literary critic and poet in his own right.

Biog: Norbert Bugeja is a leading writer within the new movement of Maltese literature. His poetry has been published in international poetry journals and read during various poetry festivals. In 2005, he published his first collection of verse, ‘Stay, Fairy Tale, Stay! Memoirs of a City Cast Adrift’ (Midsea Books/Inizjamed, 2005). Norbert Bugeja was awarded his BA (Hons) and MA in English from the University of Malta. As a Commonwealth Doctoral Scholar, he is currently concluding his doctoral thesis and lecturing at the University of Warwick in the UK.

‘Bliet’ is now on sale and is available at major booksellers in Malta and Gozo.

The Event – launch of ‘Bliet’: Norbert Bugeja’s new anthology
When: Friday, 11 December 2009, 8pm.
Where: The Music Room, St James Cavalier, Valletta

Five languages - all in day's work for poet & translator for Antoine Cassar

Antoine Cassar is a rarity in the world of literature; he’s a multilingual poet who writes in five languages. As if that creative talent weren’t enough, he goes a step further towards the impossible in poetry by weaving – in terms of rhythm, rhyme and sense – the five languages into single poems, which he calls Mużajki (mosaics). He also writes of events that shocked the world, and gripped the media, such as the Abruzzo earthquake last April; only his poetry immortalises events that garner only a few days regular media interest.

See Antoine at Notte Bianca
You can get feel for his work and the ‘five-a-day’ linguist-poet on 3 October when you’ll find him reciting his works as part of Notte Bianca cultural night of open-air, street and venue performance in Valletta. Antoine Cassar will be joined at the EU Representation in Valletta by fellow multilingual author Peter Wessel in a musical and poetic performance to celebrate the European Day of Languages. Wessel will be accompanied by musicians Mark Solborg on the keyboard and guitar and Salvador Vidal on the clarinet.

About Antoine Cassar
Born in London to Maltese parents in 1978, Antoine Cassar grew up and studied in England, Malta, Italy and Spain. He lives in Luxembourg, where he works as a translator. He is currently completing a doctoral thesis on the origins of the sonnet. Antoine presented his latest book Mużajk, an exploration in multilingual verse (Edizzjoni Skarta, 2008) at the Leipzig book fair and Berlin Literaturwerkstatt last March with the support of the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts (MCCA). In recent months, Antoine Cassar has been invited to perform his poetry at a number of literary festivals and events across western Europe.

Antoine explains his rationale to write multilingual poetry:”While the inclusion of Maltese confers the poetry that local feel and essence which any work claiming a degree of supranationality should harbour, the braiding of languages in the mużajki (Mużajk is the title given to the project, but the name of the form need not be written in any one particular language) allows me to listen to the voices within and around me without the pressing need to translate all thoughts, ideas and emotions into a single tongue.” A thought that no doubt resonates with many a hard-pressed translator who cannot find the right expression to render one language into another.

His poetry highlights
In mid-May this year, Cassar was invited to the Københavns 4. Internationale Poesifestival, organised by the Copenhagen Literaturhaus with the support of the Danish Arts Council. One of the most popular events was a projection of poetry films in which Cassar showed his two Maltese videopoems ‘Ċomb’, a violent description and lament of last December’s bombardment of the people of Gaza, and ‘L-Ajkla’, on April’s earthquake in the Abruzzo region, where Cassar lived in the winter of 1999/2000.

Cassar’s main event at the Copenhagen festival was a ground-breaking reading dedicated to what was advertised as ‘translingual poetry’. In 2004, three European poets, unbeknown to one another, embarked upon three seemingly similar yet essentially different individual projects of multilingual verse. Five years and a number of awards later, these same poets – Peter Wessel (Denmark/Spain), Øyvind Rimbereid (Norway), and Cassar himself – were brought together in a common reading in Copenhagen. Although the practice of writing poetry in a blend of tongues is by no means a novelty and has been taking place naturally for centuries, there was a fresh, contagious interest in multilingual verse among cultural organisers and literary critics.

A few weeks after Copenhagen, Cassar took part in Onzè, the eleventh edition of the Mediterranean poetry festival of Palma de Mallorca. Among the invited poets were Giuseppe Conte, one of Italy’s most renowned contemporary writers. At the event, Cassar gave prominence to his poetry in Maltese, choosing to recite Madrid Madrid, a long alliterative poem playing on the consonant group M-D-R (marid, imdardar, irmied…), documenting the four exciting, yet difficult years he spent in that city until soon after the March 2004 train bomb attacks in Atocha, where one of those to reach their final destination was his colleague Juan Pablo, with whom he often travelled to work.

In July, with the support of the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts, Cassar teamed up again with Peter Wessel and Øyvind Rimbereid for a second fully multilingual reading at the Poesiefestival Berlin, one of the largest literary events in Europe. Cassar recited the English adaptation of a work entitled ‘Merħba, a long narrative poem which celebrates the friendliness that welcomes travellers the world over, despite the tragedies and conflicts lived by families and communities on a daily basis, and the shrinking of our planet at the hands of global commerce.

The Merħba poem has also been adapted into Italian, and was recently declared a finalist of the literary prize Insieme Nel Mondo 2009.

For more information on Cassar’s poetry, including audio recordings, videos and reviews, visit http://muzajk.info.

Photo: Antoine Cassar at the Berlin Poetry Festival. © gezett.de

As unpredictable as a rubber ball on a waterbed! See them live to find out.

We’ve already mentioned Xtruppaw’s first album in a previous article, but now is the chance to see them perform their mad assortment of tunes live at Xtruppaw Lajv at the Buskett Roadhouse, 12 September, Buskett, limits of Rabat. In the run-up to the gig, I managed to get in touch with front man Jeffrey Galea for some insider information about the goings-on down Xtruppaw way.

What’s the idea behind this concert?
Fun is what Xtruppaw is all about. Our gigs guarantee a great event where humour and satire are in the limelight. As our fans know, everything can be expected from our live performances, and we have never disappointed.

Apart from tracks off your first album, should we expect anything new?
Of course, we could not do without the famous tracks from our beloved CD (called “Is-CD ta’ l-iXtruppaw”). However, we’ve got plenty of new pieces to throw at our audience. There will be some from our forthcoming album, as well as a couple of surprises to impress, in one way or another”.

Since the songs are all in Maltese, is this concert for locals only?
What’s in a tongue? If it’s a good concert it doesn’t really matter which language the songs are in. Whether you’re Maltese, British, Australian, or Mongolian you can still enjoy the music and the atmosphere. There’s no better way to break the linguistic barrier than to start learning some new swear words in another language, and if you’re going to step into the irreverent, then Xtruppaw is what you’re looking for.

What has been the response to your album, concerts and general unconventional attitude?
Our album has sold well, but most importantly it has been vastly pirated, which is a very good indicator that people actually like it. Our concerts always have a great attendance – all of the venues we’ve played were packed to the brim. We take this as a sign that Maltese is now being accepted as a language that can be integrated with modern styles of music, without restricting its appeal to a specific age group or sub-culture.

What are Xtruppaw’s plans for the future?
Xtruppaw is as predictable as a rubber rugby ball bouncing on a waterbed… even to the members of the band themselves! All we know is that the future holds many surprises. We plan to release our second album sometime soon, and we will be performing again soon enough. As for fixed dates, well, we’re sorry but our cat has eaten the calendar.

Gigs
Don’t miss Xtruppaw Lajv at the Buskett Roadhouse, on 12 September. Tickets are priced euro 8 in advance from maltaticket.com and from Exotique, Vodafone, Agenda Bookshop, Bookends and Newskiosk outlets. Euro 10 on the door. Doors will be open at 21:00 and the first band will start at 22:30 sharp. See you there!

More information about the band can be found at http://www.xtruppaw.com.

And here’s Xtruppaw ‘promoting’ the gig.

No shortage of panache and passion at Malta's International TV Short Film Festival

Many people love film, but only a select few are crazy enough to want to make films. And even a more select few do so in tiny Malta and with no budget to work from! While massive productions such as Gladiator, Munich and Troy have been filmed in part on our shores – hiring many local professionals and actors in the process – there is much less glamour surrounding the Maltese making films in Malta about the Maltese for the Maltese.

Over the past few decades, Tony Parnis has been one of the few to attempt making local films. His feature-length movie ‘Operation White Dove’, filmed on a zero-budget in the 1990s, has attained cult-movie status of a sort. His most recent movie, ‘Scrooge’ (an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic) was aired in local cinemas and on TV in late 2008 and is considered by some to be one of the best local productions ever.

Now, Tony’s passion for local film making has gone one step further. Together with TV producer and presenter Joyce Grech, a movie-lover herself who is just as passionate about local film productions, Tony got the idea of creating an international platform for local short films to compete with foreign ones, with a side aim of getting Maltese films to be seen by a wider audience.

It was this idea which drove Tony and Joyce to produce the first edition of the Malta International Television Short Film Festival. Apparently, there has never been such a festival on any TV station anywhere else in the world. So this makes it a first for Malta!

Armed with a zero budget and lots of enthusiasm, the two used the internet and fellow film lovers around the globe to attract film makers to send in their short films. The response was amazing: more than 120 films were sent for consideration from 14 countries. The majority were from Malta, of course, but, entries came as well from Europe and as far away as Canada, the USA, Australia and Zambia!

The result has been a 12-programme festival aired on the national Maltese TV station (TVM). Expert judges commented on the films they have just seen, while the public got a chance to vote for their favourite film. The programme is mainly in the Maltese but has subtitles in English.

The festival awards ceremony will be aired on TVM and on the net on 2 July, at 10pm local time (but can be seen at any time after that on the net). The level of some of the short films is very high. Malta will be proud to note that there are seven or eight local short films in the running for some of the awards … including one for Best Picture Overall.

Tony and Joyce’s experiment has been a success; it has provided an audience for often little-known film makers and it has provided also an impetus for other local film makers to produce their own short films.

Malta may not yet have its own film school, but, for now, this is probably the closest thing we’ve got. Will we see further editions of this Festival? Time will tell as finances haven’t been easy to come by. But where there’s a will, there’s a way, even when there’s not much money around

The Maltese language, easier read than said. Perhaps!

The online dictionary is the culmination of years of research, and a labour of love, of its compiler Ian Vella. The online English-to-Maltese dictionary is becoming a community-driven project as well; content is constantly growing thanks to responses and suggestions received from users, ranging from university students to Maltese emigrants in Australia and Canada. In the near future, users will also be able to add translations and articles, so it becomes a kind of ‘Wiki’ on the Maltese language.

In fact, Maltese emigrants to the new world are an interesting insight into Maltese. It is thought that they and their descendents may be speaking an older version of the language, with its rigid rules and fewer words derived from alien languages, just as the emigrants did in the ’60s when they left Malta. Maltese in émigré communities may well be speaking a Malti in a time capsule.

The origins and evolution of Maltese are fascinating. The Maltese language was adopted in Malta officially in 1935 when Malta was still an English colony. Estimates on how many people speak it vary, but it’s probably around the 600,000 mark.

The Maltese language became an officially-recognised European Union language, which means that most documents and laws are being translated from English to Maltese. There are also interpreters in the Maltese language. A press contact told me however that the European Parliament and Commission pigeon holes with EU documents in Maltese are always brimming full – implying that Maltese journalists prefer to pick up the English versions.

Most scholars agree that the Maltese language formed after being influenced from a mixture of Arabic and Sicilian dialects. Although Maltese is Semitic in its spoken nature, it is written using the Latin orthographic rules.

Around 75% of the words and rules that exist in the Maltese language at present derive from a dialect spoken in Sicily. Scholars think though that certain rules which these dialects are based upon resemble more the ancient Punic language rather than today’s Italian language.

The Maltese language also borrows vaguely from Arabic morphological rules (that is, the structure and content of words). Recently, a dialect very similar to the Maltese language was discovered being spoken in parts of Tunis. The close geographic location and the historical links between Malta and the Arabic world suggest that some rules have been morphed into the Maltese language.

However Maltese evolves from now on though, its neologisms are sure to be recorded for posterity in the English-Maltese online dictionary!

Photo: Amanda Holmes