As a young girl, Sarah Naudi gave no thought to her club foot.

Despite losing all her mobility following an operation, her mother sent her to ballet lessons at the age of three.

It was only when she later attended a dancing school in England, where others continuously pointed to her deformity, that she became more conscious of it.  

But it wasn’t going to stop her.

Overcoming the challenges and constantly having to prove herself to her peers and teachers, Naudi followed her passion and became a full-time actress in the UK.

She has taken on numerous acting jobs, worked alongside Angelina Jolie in the Malta-filmed By the Sea, and performed one of the lead roles in a West End production In The Heights.

And now she’s gone one step further. Inspired by her childhood experiences and love for sport, she has written the script for The Home Straight, about a retired Maltese athlete with a club foot who comes out of retirement and, against all odds, becomes one of Europe’s top 400 sprinters.

Naudi herself will play the protagonist, Serena Segalle. The series will be filmed in Malta and have other local actors and crew.

“At dance school, people always used to tell me how amazing it was that I could dance despite having a deformity. I found this extremely interesting and I wanted to write about it,” Naudi told Times of Malta.

In preparing to write the script, she spoke to physiotherapists and local athletes to explore the world of Maltese sports.

She said The Home Straight also delves into Malta’s society and its families. Serena’s family had questioned her career choices and quizzed her about when she was going to settle down and have a family.

The production will be directed by Keith Tedesco from Lampa Stampa films.

From feature to mini-series

The Home Straight had been shelved for five years and the script was originally written for a feature-length film. And,  just like its writer and star, the project faced numerous challenges along the way.

“One draft after another, the script was continuously changed,” Tedesco said.

“We had found some foreign producers who were interested in co-producing so long as we were backed up by local funding. We applied for the local film funds back in 2020, with a budget originally at €700,000, which is quite small for a feature film but we were feeling great. For reasons we still cannot understand today, we were not given the grant.”

Based in the Netherlands, Tedesco is a cameraman assistant and has worked on numerous productions.

His debut Uwijja, a story about the dangers of drink driving, was shown in local cinemas earlier this year.

“Uwijja was a labour born out of pure frustration and The Home Straight is similar because I am no longer waiting for delayed national funds to come out. I’m making it happen my way, funding a lot of it myself and getting things done with resources I have available.”

The budget was downsized by around €160,000 and will now be produced as 30-minute episodes.

While Tedesco has secured a number of local and foreign investors for the series, he has also set up a crowdfunding page to raise an additional €40,000.

“In reality, this is a micro-budget and the 40k I am requesting is cash flow to fund the crew and resources we need for the second and third episode,” he said.

He said the word ‘crowdfunding’ could be misleading. Whoever donates to the production will be investing in the business and receive shares.

The project is set for global video-on-demand distribution with Under the Milky Way on various platforms such as iTunes and Amazon.

While it was a difficult decision to downsize to a mini-series, the two creators also see the benefits.

“The series medium is more popular today and we can split up production per episode, giving us more space to delve into subplots rather than trying to squeeze everything into one movie,” Tedesco said.

He hopes to start filming in March 2023.

Talent in Malta but little funding

Naudi said the project posed the question to the viewer: “Would you risk your health to do the thing you love?”

“Is it worth it? Keith and I are risking all the time, for the passion of art and film, and I am sure it is the same for the sports world,” she said.

The two creatives’ friendship dates back to their teen years and they have worked on previous projects together.

“We speak to each other every day, we argue and disagree and talk about projects we can produce for both local and international audiences,” she said.

Tedesco said there was an “insane” amount of talent on the island but a major lack of local original stories.

Film crew and producers need more support, he added.

“The only reason certain local films exist is by the passion of a few individuals, who fight for money and make projects their way,” he said.

He said local producers get a paltry sum of €600,000 compared to the millions available to producers abroad.

“What I learnt from Uwijja is if you put your mind to it and follow it, it will happen. If you wait around and do nothing, the opportunities will run dry,” he said.

“My main goal is to be a full-time film-maker and I won’t stop till I get there. This will also be for the benefit for Malta. I will produce more films which tell an authentic Maltese story, which I hope will then be shown in festivals abroad, to show the stories we have.”

Those interested in contributing to The Home Straight can do so at indiegogo.com.