"Dear Dom", the film on the former prime minister of Malta Dom Mintoff, has been chosen to be screened at the European Film Week in Helsinki.

Coincidentally, Helsinki was one of the capitals where Mintoff forged a 'bad boy' reputation among some international leaders, having held up the 1973 Helsinki CSCE conference for weeks while he insisted on the inclusion of section on the Mediterranean in the final document on security and cooperation in Europe - insisting that there could be no peace in Europe without peace in the Mediterranean. He got his way.

The European Film Week is being organized by the European Commission Representation and the European Parliament Information Office and will take place 26 April – 8 May in Helsinki.

The event gathers together different types of European films from different European countries.

"Dear Dom" which was released in Malta on Friday 23rd March at Eden cinemas, is the first project awarded funds from the Malta Film Fund to be screened to the public in cinema. The Malta Film Fund was established in 2008 to help with the growth of the indigenous film industry.

The documentary "Dear Dom" covers the political life and tribulations of the man who shaped the little sunny island of Malta with his authoritarian and hard headed leadership. A tireless negotiator who championed the causes of the working class. The documentary features unseen archive footage of Mintoff from the 1960s and the famous 1971 negotiations with Britain.

Animated sequences are used to recreate events. People who were affected by his actions speak out for the first time in original interviews.
Film-maker Pierre Ellul has worked in the international film industry as an assistant director to Ridley Scott and Stephen Spielberg amongst others. He was nominated for a Director's Guild of America award as part of Spielberg's directorial team for the film Munich.

www.deardomfilm.com