HELEN OF TROY leaves her mark in Malta's film history   

USA Cable's miniseries Helen Of Troy will undoubtedly go down in Malta's history of film as the one production shot entirely in the Maltese islands and which maximized local talent to a degree unmatched by any previous production.  

The television drama drew upon home-grown talent not simply in terms of technical support but also very notably in terms of cast.  Twenty-three Maltese actors had speaking parts in this production,  which was filmed over nine weeks last summer..

The Count of Monte Cristo, which was filmed in Malta three years ago, is today considered to be one of Malta's best cinematic showcases of its picturesque locations. And ‘Treasure in Malta' produced back in 1962 by the British Children's Film Foundation also shot substantially here with several important parts given to Maltese.

But Helen of Troy, unlike other American productions which tend to bring in a full foreign cast, was unprecedented in terms of Malta screen-time, heavy use of local technical crew and the number of Maltese actors with speaking parts who were not left on the cutting-room floor.

Some of the several Maltese actors with speaking parts. Director John Kent-Harrison  highly praised the local talent.

Manuel Cauchi

Edward Mercieca

Malcolm Galea

With a total running time of 180 minutes, the series was premiered in the US on April 20 and 21 and has now been released on DVD.  It was directed by John Kent-Harrison who had high praise for Malta and the local talent. Line-producer was Ted Kurdyla ( Phonebooth )

Rufus Sewell stars as “Agamemnon,” the ruthless King Of Mycenae who uses Helen's escape to fuel his ambition of sacking Troy and crowning himself King of the Aegean. Matthew Marsden (Black Hawk Down) stars as “Paris” the Prince of Troy whose return to his home with Helen will ultimately bring about the doom of an empire.  Model-turned-actress Sienna Guillory played the part of “Helen”.

Foreign supporting cast members include John Rhys-Davies as “Priam” King of Troy and Maryam d'Abo as his wife “Hecuba.” James Callis and Stellan Skarsgard star as “Menelaus” King of Sparta and “Theseus” King of Athens respectively. Daniel Lapaine stars as “Hector” Prince of Troy while Emilia Fox stars as “Cassandra” Princess of Troy, and both contribute to the sense of great tragedy that yields the humanity in this brutal depiction of humanity's most primal behaviors and motives that include wanton lust, sadistic brutality, exploitation and yet is also underpinned with the themes of love and what drives people to war.  The themes of fate and history also enhance the scale of the production. 

Joe Montana stands out as “Achilles” and has some of the most memorable dialogue in the miniseries. Rufus Sewell is magnificent as “Agamemnon”. As a whole the casting for this miniseries is truly above average.

 
 

USA Cable Entertainment is the TV production arm of Universal Studios.  It produces several films, TV shows and episodic dramas every year. 

 With television shoots typically being on tight budgets, the producers were very aware of the need to get this film made in a cost efficient manner and not without careful planning, especially when involving epics like this.  When deciding to shoot in Malta the Universal executives realized that although the island of Malta was cheaper than most other European cities, it was still much more expensive than Croatia which was then heading the list of other prospective host countries.   

So Malta had to be no exception in terms of cost-efficiency. The production had to ensure it absorbed any prospect of local talent and support crew.  

Line producer Malcolm Scerri-Ferrante who assisted the Universal executives during some difficult stages of their preparations, said: "The budget challenge for USA Cable who decided not to film in the less expensive Croatia turned out to be a golden opportunity for Malta. Exhausting Malta's resources instead of bringing in foreigners was not only a matter of common sense, but a hard and constant effort to keep the film on budget.  I would say it was this 'desperation' to be cost-efficient that gave the Maltese the opportunity to prove themselves.”

And prove themselves they did, with flying colours. At the end the studio executives were also on the winning end for other reasons. “We utilized already existing film sets at a nominal fee and artistically we managed to achieve a lot from a large variety of locations which were only 10 minutes apart from each other.” says the film's production manager Michele Greco, “That's the beauty about Malta." he added. 

Some of the diverse locations found in Malta.

Angela Mancuso, the president of USA Cable Entertainment, admitted that shooting in Malta was not an easy decision to make. She was satisfied with the look of Helen of Troy and believes coming to Malta was well worth it. However, she expressed dismay for not receiving any government support in terms of financial incentives. 

“Financial incentives”, explained Ms Mancuso, “should be offered across the board to all producers and not discriminately.”

In fact, t he studio president earlier this year decided against shooting the TV Series “Spartacus” in Malta for cost-efficiency reasons and also because of the absence of sound stages. Instead the $14m TV series was shot in Bulgaria in and around Sofia, which also provided a wider variety of locations.

Despite her disappointment, Ms Mancuso expressed acknowledgement of the support from Oliver Mallia and Luisa Bonello of the Malta Film Commission, who now serve as commissioner and director respectively.  “The commission was very persistent in keeping us looking at Malta” said Ms Mancuso who was full of praise for  the Maltese crew and actors. “I made a lot of good friends in Malta.” she said.

The shooting of Helen of Troy also gave opportunities to many newcomers who served as trainees or runners, all of them eager to work in the film industry.  Some individuals enjoyed much greater roles such as Edward Mercieca who was local casting director and Kurt Arrigo, the stills photographer, to name just a couple. This was the first production of this calibre to rely entirely on a Maltese stills photographer. 

Young promising Maltese sculptor Chris Ebejer was entrusted with the challenging task of designing and building the Trojan horse - not a full sized one but a five-foot high model that would later be enlarged on screen by the visual effects team. The result of this effect, supervised by Visual Effects Supervisor Sam Nicholson, was simply outstanding.

Chris Ebejer at work on the Trojan horse

Despite the lack of continuous film work in Malta, some of the newcomers to this industry managed to remain on track by furthering their film experience, substantially increasing Malta's local support crew in the short span of one year.

However, one question remains: With the predicted gaps in filming in at least the foreseeable future, will these new promising crew members be able to keep their new careers on track or must they resort to other regular jobs which could very well make them unavailable for the next film shoot?

This unfortunately is a common occurrence in Malta due to the lack of financial incentives and sound stages, and moreover due to the lack of a home-grown producing industry, all of which could create film activity every day of the year.

What the critics say:

Film critic Mark A. Rivera noticed specifically the attention to detail and the mixing of the metaphysical with the stark reality of the material world.  "The scenes where the Trojans take in the great horse is awe inspiring and while we do see Greek Gods in the miniseries it is done in a more naturalistic manner that still retains mystic qualities. We get the sense that destiny has been set and the Gods have ordained what is to transpire and yet we also get the sense that the fate is determined by the choices the characters made so though it may be unlikely, one has to wonder could things have turned out differently had someone done something different? 

"The more I think about the miniseries", writes Mark, " in retrospect the more I can spot so many metaphors for the human condition like the contrast of the act of making love embodied in the union between Paris and Helen and their acceptance within the walls of Troy to the deception of the Trojan horse and Helen's subsequent rape by Agamemnon in public while the Greeks mercilessly kill much of the people of Troy and enslave most of the few remaining survivors. The act of war is contrast to the act of sex more plainly in the miniseries' subtext than I have ever seen in a television miniseries before. The widening of the opening of the walls of Troy to bring in the horse containing the Greeks who will bring about her doom is quite frankly like a vagina accepting a penis inside without regard for the possible diseases that could be contained in the sperm so in short I found the scene to be metaphor for unprotected sex. Perhaps it is no coincidence then that the most well known brand of condom is Trojans."

The miniseries contains some scenes of visceral bloodshed and nudity, but none of it is presented in a distasteful manner. The filmmakers did not shy away from showing what they did because it is an important part of the story. 

Mark Rivera continues his critical comments "Another element I really liked was the production and costume design. This looks like how I imagine Greece appearing at that age and thankfully none of it looks like an episode of “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,” which is so refreshing because I could never buy the locales and costuming as being remotely authentic even though the obvious differences between an epic like this and a series like that is like comparing night and day. The only aspect that I think should have been brought out is an element I remember from “The Iliad.” Helen is enthralled over the fact of these two nations fighting over her and this I think gratifies her own ego when she witnesses the carnage below the walls of Troy, but that aspect of her personality is never fully developed in the miniseries."