Rinella here we come: CHOGM chief, PM’s chief of staff, Identity Malta chief and Labour Party campaign director set up film companies
Movie Mogul 1: CHOGM chief Face-Cream Phyllis
Our new movie moguls: CHOGM chief Face-Cream Phyllis and PM’s chief of staff Keith Schembri (now represented by his father Alfio) own Grigal Films Ltd
Identity Malta chief Joe Vella Bonnici (a failed Labour candidate) is another of our new movie moguls, with a company set up last summer
Mario Philip Azzopardi, starring in his own campaign movie
Cittadella Films
Grigal Films
TAGHNA LKOLL TROUGH UPDATE – except that it’s not a trough, is it, but is now literally a full-on Rinella water-tank crowded with snouts.
You might have read in the news a few days ago that the government has won a law suit, confirmed on appeal, against Mediterranean Film Studios Ltd (started nine years ago).
The company is to be evicted from Rinella film studios, which include the famous water tanks, because of rent left unpaid since 1998.
The film studios and water tanks are now up for grabs.
And here’s the interesting bit. CHOGM chief Face-Cream Phyllis (Muscat), the PM’s chief of staff Keith ‘Kasco’ Schembri, Identity Malta chief Joe Vella Bonnici (in charge of selling passports) and Mario Philip Azzopardi (Labour’s campaign director for staging and film) have set up two film companies between them.
Face-Cream Phyllis and the PM’s chief of staff (now represented by his dad Alfio) set up Grigal Films Ltd in August two years ago with a man called Pierre Sladden. They have no experience or background in film.
Identity Malta chief Joe Vella Bonnici set up Cittadella Malta Films Ltd with Mario Philip Azzopardi, who is his brother-in-law, last summer.
You will instantly recognise that this cosy Taghna Lkoll insiders set-up is wide, wide open to abuse, cronyism and corruption. Even if no such cronyism and corruption takes place, it is enough that the possibility of it has been created because of the massive conflicts of interest due to the people involved.
Joe Vella Bonnici’s and Mario Philip Azzopardi’s company, incorporated as it was when Labour was in government already and Joe Vella Bonnici was in line to become Identity Malta chief, appears to have been designed precisely to that end and purpose: taking advantage of their government insider status.
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Mario Philip Azzopardi is married to the sister of Joe Vella Bonnici.
Influx of people from Libya
How many passports are we going to sell here then?
This is Labour in reality. This is why they are there. Not to govern but to plunder.
All in the same trousers ja qabda bustards.
So government forks out €4.2 million to bail out Cafe Regina, and fails to bail out Malta Film Facilities. Both lawsuits were identical, unpaid rent on government properties. Wonder why?
Didn’t the Labour Party fail to pay the rent on Australia Hall for years? Two weights and two measures.
One word: Plunder
PL plunder will pull us UNDER.
Jifilhu jithanzru aktar.
At least Mario Philip Azzopardi is highly successful in film making and has built quite a reputation in the industry.
However, to achieve this reputation he fled Mintoffian Malta in 1978. Others were unable to afford this luxury for one reason or another.
Upon his return Azzopardi joins the Taghna Lkoll Brigade instead of criticising a government that employs tactics identical to those used by Mintoff,
One would think that a man would have learnt from the mistakes of the past and opened his mind after living in Canada for so many years.
You are not ‘highly successful’ just because you blow your own trumpet very loudly and proclaim that you are so good. Not everyone who goes overseas makes it. What has he done that makes him ‘highly successful’? Has he won any awards?
His IMDB profile says he is known for he is a director and writer, known for E.N.G. (1989), Savage Messiah (2002) and The Outer Limits (1995).
Have you ever heard of any of these? Two of these are TV series. If he was so successful then why did he come back to Malta to work for the Labour Party?
It is not the case of Azzopardi blowing his own trumpet. IMDB does not show much. Azzopardi directed episodes and was involved in the Stargate TV franchise that ran for about 10 seasons and Counterstrike. These may not be popular in Malta but they were popular in the US.
However, that is besides the point.
My point lies in your last question: “why did he come back to Malta to work for the Labour Party?” Indeed I gloss over his familiarity with the industry to emphasise that point.
I believe he only did a few episodes of Stargate not the whole series.
Yes, AE, Azzopardi did a few episodes of Stargate. But that is hardly the point. I stated that the man is successful and has proof of that success in contrast to Phyllis Muscat et al.
The point is that to obtain that success he fled Mintoffian Malta only to come back to support it and to leech from it. The point is also that the man has not learnt anything from the many years of living in a country that allows individual freedoms unlike Mintoffian Malta that quashes individuals.
He has learned the most ‘important’ thing in life: That money is more important than anything else.
That is precisely how he measures the value of an artistic enterprise — money. He said so himself since returning to Malta to join the Lejber bandwagon.
Living in Canada for ‘many years’ is no cure for ingrained Mintoffianism. I know many Maltese living in Canada since the 50s and 60s who are still as rabid Mintoffjani as they were before they emigrated.
Thank God, they are mostly illiterate and not often do you see them spilling their venom on blogs and on other electronic media. Not because they don’t want to, but because they don’t know how to. Many don’t even know how to speak or write Maltese correctly, let alone English.
I think the point goes back to the way Daphne usually characterises this – the other Malta or rather the prevailing Maltese culture.
Where we disagree is where you say he is successful.
Government withdraws its action on Australia Hall. The PL hangs on to the property worth millions.
Government pursues an action on Rinella land against MFSL and retrieves the property.
Highly discriminatory and MORALLY CORRUPT.
It will be even more morally corrupt if the land is allocated to one of the Taghna Lkoll brigade.
The action against Mediterranean Film Studios was instituted by a Nationalist government in 2005. I think it was the correct thing to do.
Just like this government should have instituted an action against the owners of Cafe Premier but instead awarded them millions out of our tax coffers.
So as to be consistent, this government could have withdrawn the action against Mediterranean Film Studios (not sure – because it was on appeal so there already was a judgement) or done a deal with the company but obviously there are other bigger interests at play here.
It will be granted or sold to the Chinese embassy.
My bets are on the Russians. Another important asset sold off
Will some newspaper ask for Phyllis Muscat’s contract with the government under the Freedom of Information Act?
The gathering of the vultures attracted by the stench of the dead prey.
Bhall Fusellu /Lorry Sant ghad jispiccaw.
Jitqatlu bejniethom.
Min ghandu envelops kannella jirbah.
Our little coterie of tin-pot oligarchs in the making.
Issa jridu kollox ghax gvern taghhom. Vera nies zibel.
Following in notorious Lorry Sant and Patrick Holland’s footsteps.
Interesting timing of this suggestion.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140727/local/private-should-invest-in-land-held-by-mediterranean-film-studios-pn.529415
Yes, I wonder who is advising them? I fear that they are just pawns and too naive to keep up with this lot.
The pirates, disguised as lovely and loving people, had boarded the ship and are now looting everything they find. Most probably they will scuttle the ship once they have taken everything they can.
Keith Schembri is a shareholder (in his own name) in another film company called Cinebiss C 41776, alongside Spira Trading which belongs to the Sladdens (including Pierre mentioned in your post) and Oliver Mallia, who used to be the Malta Film Commissioner.
It was set up in July 2007 shortly after Mallia stepped down as Film Commissioner and just before a big budget film hit Malta (‘Agora’ budget Eur50 million), in time for Cinebiss to service it (x’kumbinazzjoni).
This is another company to keep an eye on.
Conflict of interests all round.
Mario Philip Azzopardi can hardly manage a small production of a play let alone a blockbuster.
There’s only one name for it – HAXI.
U dawn nies li ghal kull haga ta’ xejn kienu jaraw korruzzjoni fil-Gvern Nazzjonalista.
Face-Cream Phyllis hosts Joseph Muscat on her boat berthed at Mellieha Bay and gets more than an iced bun.
Grigal Films indeed. For years and years all we heard about is the stereotypical bull about what was filmed here by the UK or US majors that indeed turned a profit.
Tell me any Maltese film that has made a dent in the international market. None (with one exception I will get to in a moment).
I can quote a shitload of films here that have always been full of their own self-importance for the local population, and generally appealing to the lowest common denominator. An excellent example was the execreble *Qerq* from some years ago which did indeed top the box office in Malta, and if you have some reservations about its quality the reviews on IMDB are a joy to behold.
The recent box office success of *Simshar* was a two-pronged effort in marketing and good film-making. There was funding because of a good script, sub-titling for foreign (and Maltese) markets, and a name (which caused a bit of controversy due to the fact he was not Maltese, but well known in other countries, thus securing foreign sales hopefully).
I have met Rebecca Cremona (the director) and her passion and enthusiasm for what must have a pet project from inception to completion and beyond shows what can be achieved with a market which, up to that time, was renowned for mediocrity and a wilderness of tat.
Our new local conglomerate of Darryl F. Zanuck and Louis B. Mayer wannabes will no doubt bugger it all up in one foul swoop.
Allan r, this blog needs more of your comments.
I have been involved in the so-called Maltese film industry at the PR event end of things, and words cannot describe the sheer amount of (public) that is thrown on bling for special screenings and gala evenings and so on. Vast delegations flown to far-flung corners of the globe. Gifts for the guests. Posters and adverts and expensive venues.
And all for, as you sublimely put it, execrable films, which never make a dent in the cinematic history.
It might be worth remembering too that just filming some scenes of some films in Malta doesn’t guarantee a barrage of “tyoorist arrivals” and “forinn investment”.
@ Baxxter
Yes it would be far better if the funding went in screen rather than the bling.
Films may not guarantee the arrival of many tourists but a well made film can provide indirect marketing the value of which is inquantifiable. Think what Carey Grant and Audrey Hepburn riding on a Vespa did for Rome.
Rome was the backdrop and that film was effectively a full on advert for Rome which it reaps benefits from till t Subtle marketing is much better than full on adverts on the London buses for example, crassly begging people to come to enjoy the sea and sun here (totally ineffective especially when there are better beaches elsewhere). But then we never understood subtle did we.
I am morally convinced that our beloved Prime Minister is very much aware of the troughs which are set up practically on a daily basis and this with reference both to the more blatant Taghna Lkoll opportunities which are spotted by the ‘thinking’ media and to those opportunities which are perhaps far less detectable but no less rewarding to the Labour snouts.
Equally, I am morally convinced that Dr Joseph Muscat allows all this to go on for one simple reason: whether directly or more likely indirectly, he’s got at least one finger in the pie too and in his case it must be a much bigger pie.