'The Great beyond'

Abstract

Making a slapstick fictional story out of real-life experiences is not an easy thing. Julie Schumacher in A view from the loft, argues that the art of turning real life into fiction requires the mandatory separation of the personal experience and the fictional counterpart. She insists on the fact that “recognize that your experience and its fictional counterpart are not one and the same, no matter the similarities”. (Schumacher, 1991) Schumacher insists further to be faithful to the truth and not the facts. In her essay On Keeping a Notebook, Joan Didion insists “that the point of writing in a notebook is not to preserve an ‘accurate factual record’” (Didion, 1968) The stories of Gozitans and what they go through to earn a living, might have been lost or not given the adequate importance. Up till the early 2010s, there was a divisive culture between Maltese and Gozitans which was diluted by the early 2013. That year brought a lot of changes in this regard. Maltese became more interested the Gozitan culture and dialects and what they go through to earn a better living. Although a study about the socio impact assessment of Gozitans working or studying in Malta was carried by Sarah Bajada nothing was done about a moment which most Gozitans experience, he moment when they lose the ferry to their homeland. On the other hand, in Malta no one ever did a slapstick movie. Combining slapstick with such moment seemed a perfect idea which made the movie richer in its artistic approach. As part of my MA in Film Studies, I have submitted a 32-minute real-life story turned into a slapstick fictional one. This was possible since the story posed a lot of slapstick gags giving a new life to this amazing comic style. A script was written following intensive research on slapstick comedies and using key important starting points about the truth of the daily life of Gozitans studying or working in Malta. The actors were professionally trained for the movie through several physical and miming workshops leading to two months of slapstick rehearsals. Most of the cast was committed on a full-time basis for the movie. A colour slapstick silent movie was a huge risk given that the silent era produced black and white movies due to the technology at that time. The decision was based on personal instincts vis ’a vis slapstick and the will of the test audience. The test audience loved the colour version much more than the black and white one, so the risk was taken. The colours were symbolically chosen to represent their own metaphoric meaning. The soundtrack was designed specifically for the movie. The movie is divided into two parts. The first part focus on the situations that Gozitans go through twisted into a slapstick fictional way, while the second part drives the story into a romantic twist focusing on the simple life in Gozo, and the revelation of the main actor’s identity.