There’s a version of this review that is unabashedly celebratory.
Bruce Micallef Eynaud’s independently produced short, We Three Kings, reboots and revamps the Biblical tale of the three magi as a swords-and-sorcery romp – the sub-genre of fantasy that gave us Conan the Barbarian. That it exists at all in Malta’s contemporary film landscape is something of a small, magi-adjacent miracle in and of itself; that it looks and sounds good while doing it, even more so.
How it all feels, however, is another thing entirely, pointing to a fundamental lack in an otherwise impressively slick piece of content.
The story pitches Balthasar (Matthew Kofi Browne) as our roguish protagonist – a Prince of Babylon, with an impressive track record but an unfortunate penchant of accumulating debts from dangerous and vengeful men. But his fate is set to change when the two remaining monarchs of the title – Melchior (Richard Godden) and Caspar (Nathan Brimmer) – show up to bail him out. Reticent at first, but keen to escape yet another angry creditor, Balthasar eventually agrees to join the trio on their journey across treacherous terrain, as they set about to deliver gifts to the promised New Messiah – whose burgeoning movement is causing no small amount of headaches to King Herod (Stephen Oliver) and who, with the help of his in-house witch (Isabel Warrington) unleashes some supernatural traps upon our heroes.
Now, there’s a lot to enjoy in Micallef Eynaud’s short. It’s constructed with notable care and flair which belies its micro-budget, and likely also speaks volumes about the perks of virtual production technologies which continue to democratise the filmmaking process.
And opting for swords-and-sorcery over high fantasy means that it sidesteps a fatal error in pitch committed by its erstwhile Maltese predecessor, Adormidera (2013) – it’s weird to actually speak about something resembling a ‘lineage’ of Maltese fantasy cinema, but here we are – because it takes the pressure off in so many ways.
Its camp trappings of exoticism (let’s be frank, downright orientalism) are well rendered through production and costume design, and the arch tone allows for humour to slip in – albeit being of the now tiresome brand of facile irony that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has popularised to stagnation. As is customary, the villains are the ones who give us the greatest joy here – Stephen Oliver’s Herod is keen to execute a child associated with the new messiah movement, only to be thwarted by his exacting adviser Blastus (Andrew Bonello), who reminds him that they’re booked up for executions for tonight and that the following morning isn’t an option either since Herod has scheduled his wife to be killed at 9am.
Fun as it is, though, there’s very little in We Three Kings that a viewer would be able to distinguish from any number of similar genre exercises that would emerge from the US. Yes, America – there’s nothing that feels Maltese or even European about the project. While the beats land nicely and while some of the quips work, they are also predictable and reheated. Harsh as it may sound, it all begs the question: for all its technical competence, what is all this really for?
The more charitable take is that Micallef Eynaud is pushing the boundaries of what is possible for local filmmakers who have, for years, been neglected by the establishment. As is also evident through his involvement with the ‘Video Nasties’ horror short film competition and the recently set up streaming service Indydog – which has slowly but surely been growing a library of locally produced independent short films – Micallef Eynaud and his peers are adopting a DIY approach that is, in many ways, overdue.
With funding infrastructure for film having recently shifted from the Malta Film Commission to Arts Council Malta, the optimistic read of the situation would suggest that we could be looking at a more sustained system of support, on the basis that the film commission has always prioritised servicing over indigenous production and the arts council being an entity with substantial experience in assisting local artists of all stripes to get their projects made.
But while the jury is out, we would do well to observe what the likes of Micallef Eynaud will accomplish in the meantime, when left to their own devices. Marrying the technical prowess of We Three Kings with a script that actually scratches a specific, distinct itch may very well result in a project that puts Malta on the cinematic map.
We Three Kings will be showing at Gozo Film Festival at Victoria’s Citadel on Friday August 22, 20:30, and on 23 August, 22:30 at Triq il-Parroċċa, Qrendi, as part of the Minn Pjazza Għal Pjazza initiative
