Sir Alan Parker has dominated my life of late. Come to think of it, he’s always been there, somewhere in the ether. (I still can’t sweep a floor without singing about a “tomorrow that never comes!”) One chapter of my thesis focuses on the making of Midnight Express and I have spent many hours trawling through archival material to piece together the film’s pre- and post-production narrative.

I have also spoken with a number of individuals who were involved, in one way or another, in the actual shoot. And Jean Pierre Borg – with whom I co-edited World Film Locations: Malta and whose Filmed in Malta NGO has been a fantastic resource – has also been vital in my quest for knowledge about the production.

Yesterday, I got to meet Sir Alan Parker and was lucky enough to accompany him, and several others, on what would be his first visit to Fort St Elmo, the film’s main location, since he was here in 1977. Surreal to say the least: we wandered through the dusty fortification, replete with the neon remains of what once formed part of a carnival float.

The director – now painter – remembered every detail: “That was the production office,” he said, pointing up to the higher part of the structure. Production designer Geoffrey Kirkland was able to take the already intimidating structure and make it into a space that appeared to be even more harrowing. Using artistic licence, Kirkland added sections of stone and barbed wire to construct a highly stylised, almost gothic version of the Turkish prison that housed Billy Hayes.

While at Fort St Elmo we happened to come across two people from Valletta in their workshop. One of the men told Parker that as an a 11-year-old, he was one of the few child extras in the film, specifically “the one on the left”.

I wasn’t at all surprised when Parker turned to us and told us a detailed story about the boy “on the left”. Before commencing production, Parker wrote a letter which he distributed to his cast and crew (a tradition he informs me that he kept up after Midnight Express).

I came across the letter during my research. It is a touching missive, written by someone who clearly cared a great deal about the journey on which he was about to embark with his collaborators. The first few lines read: “As you have gathered from the script it is my intention to make a very violent, uncompromisingly brutal film, the subject matter of which will no doubt take its toll on all of us.”

Cast and crew survived, with the film going on to enter the 1978 edition of the Cannes Film Festival and winning two Oscars: one to Giorgio Moroder for his musical score, the other to Oliver Stone for his adaptation of Billy Hayes’s biography. After Midnight Express, Sir Alan Parker went on to direct 12 feature films.

• Charlie Cauchi is a creative producer and doctoral candidate in the Film Studies department at Queen Mary University of London.