Cinema for me is…

Veronika in 10 frames

1. What film made you fall in love with cinema?
Ingmar Bergman’s Through a Glass Darkly

2. What are the 3 best European films you have seen in the last year?
The Triplets of Belleville
Emir Kusturica’s Time of the Gypsies
Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War

3. What does Europe mean to you?
Europe to me indicates a wish and an attempt to go beyond national and individual identifications in search for a wider sense of community across time. It is not simply a geographical location, but rather it is an area with a complicatedly intertwined past that is brought together by the creation and preservation of a specific identity. At its best, this identity is held together by values centering unity and peace, communication, joint understanding, opportunity and exchange.

4. What do you like the most about your country that makes it unique?
I love the Maltese coast. On quiet nights, one can hear the calm ringing of the ship poles and see boats passing in and out of the harbour. Moored ships on the horizon give the impression of floating cities and sometimes, one can even spot the silhouette of Sicily in the distance.
Away from the cities, the coast provides beautiful clay slopes, dramatic cliff-sides and beaches. In winter, the harsh sea outlines the coast with lines of white foam and in Summer, the sea provides a cooling shelter from the sun’s heat and a source of much needed fresh air.

5. Your favorite film theatre? What do you like about it?
My favourite film theatre is the City Lights cinema in Valletta because of its accessibility and the range of films it shows. The entrance is (for the most part) free and the site is historically important in terms of the relationship between cinema, film and screenings in Malta.

6. What is your dream job in the film industry?
My dream job in the film industry would be as a screenwriter or director. This is because I enjoy visual and written forms of freedom and expression.

7. Which film director would you like to be?
A hybrid of sorts – ideally somewhere between Krzysztof Kieślowski, Věra Chytilová and Emir Kusturica.

8. Which film character do you most identify with?
Margot in Éric Rohmer’s A Summer’s Tale.

9. Your favorite soundtrack or song?
My favourite soundtrack is Van den Budenmayer from the Double life of Veronique.

10. If you had to live in a movie, which one would you like it to be?
I have yet to find a more charming, playful and colourful world than that seen in the Grand Budapest Hotel.

Veronika Mercieca is the Ambassador for Eden Cinema. Find out more about the Cinema here.