Best Maltese drama movies
A curated collection of popular drama movies from Malta.
A Vipers' Pit (2021)
A Vipers' Pit (2021)
Based on the novel by Alex Vella Gera, the film follows father and son Richard and Noel Sammut Petri, as hidden plans from 1984, weigh down on lives in 2012. 1984, Malta is in the middle of a political crisis from years of corruption and a protracted fight between the socialist government and the catholic church. Richard Sammut Petri, a young father, is inducted into a shady organisation by his friend Roger Tabone and convinced to assassinate the Prime Minister of Malta. 2012, Noel Sammut Petri returns to Malta for his mother’s funeral, still haunted by the memories of his father Richard, who abandoned his family back in 1984. Slowly, Noel is pulled in by the old family friend Roger and his family, but the closer he gets, the more history starts to haunt his life and he becomes destined to fall in the same pit of snakes that took down his father.
Gozo (2015)
Gozo (2015)
Lucille and Joe have moved to Gozo, a tiny island in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Malta. They have a nice car, a steady income, a beautiful farmhouse with breathtaking views and a swimming pool. They seem to have it all. But when a young tourist goes missing on the island, Joe's disquieted conscience begins to get the better of him. As the buried horrors of Lucille and Joe's past resurface, the cracks begin to show in their homespun paradise.
The Cage (1971)
The Cage (1971)
A study of the political and religious fanaticism in Malta in the 60s.
Carmen (2022)
Carmen (2022)
In a small Mediterranean village, Carmen has looked after her brother, the local priest, for her entire life. When the Church abandons Carmen, she is mistaken for the new priest. Carmen begins to see the world, and herself, in a new light.
I Yam What I Yam... The Invention (2013)
I Yam What I Yam... The Invention (2013)
I Yam What I Yam...L'invenzione' is centered around the collision of two films originally shot on the same location; Emidio Greco's 'L'invenzione di Morel' (1974) and Robert Altman's 'Popeye' (1980). In Greco's film a shipwrecked man stumbles upon an ultra-modernist mansion. In it he finds a group of people trapped in a perpetual present facilitated by a machine that's capable of reproducing reality. Sant's reinvention of this film is shot on the same location, follows the same storyline, but occupies another world. In place of the mansion, he finds himself in 'Sweethaven' - the set of Altman's 'Popeye'. Though there is no trace of Greco's set, Altman's 'Sweethaven' remains - echoing Greco's plot by existing as an open-air museum where costumed entertainers re-enact scenes.
Luzzu (2021)
Luzzu (2021)
Jesmark, a struggling fisherman on the island of Malta, is forced to turn his back on generations of tradition and risk everything by entering the world of black market fishing to provide for his girlfriend and newborn baby.
Simshar (2014)
Simshar (2014)
Young Theo is sent on his first trip with his Maltese sea faring family, but things go terribly wrong when the 'Simshar' sinks, leaving the crew stranded in the Mediterranean... Simultaneously, Alex - a medic reluctantly dispatched onto a Turkish Merchant vessel which has rescued a group of stranded African boat people between Malta and Italy - gets stuck on the boat as the countries wage a bureaucratic war over who should take in the migrants... The stories unravel in parallel and culminate tragically when the fishermen are traced down, but by that time there's only one survivor.
Limestone Cowboy (2018)
Whatever (2022)
Whatever (2022)
John, a Maltese student with big dreams and a serious lack of sleep, has had a busy and exhausting last couple of days. It all takes a toll on him during one night whilst driving home from work. His going missing effects a series of coincidental events on a night of tragedy.